WRQ Improves Security of Terminal Emulation Suite

by Alex Woodie

WRQ may be in the middle of a merger with longtime cross-town rival Attachmate, but that hasn't stopped the Seattle company from updating its Reflection suite of terminal emulation software. Last week WRQ unveiled new security capabilities in its software, including support for single sign-on (SSO) and SSL support for OS/400-based file transfers, among other enhancements. In a separate announcement, WRQ revealed a new release of Reflection for Secure IT, which was formerly called F-Secure SSH.

iSeries shops gain several new security capabilities with the new version of WRQ's Reflection suite. Users will now use the same password to sign onto multiple hosts through their WRQ terminal, as SSO capabilities come to all three Reflection products that offer 5250 support, including version 13.0 of WRQ's Reflection for IBM, Reflection for the Multi-Host Enterprise 13.0, and Reflection for the Web 8.0. WRQ's terminal emulators for non-IBM systems also gained SSO capabilities.

Enabling SSO has become one of the fastest ways to cut costs while also making users happy and more productive. With the number of applications users must access continuing to rise, help desks are often spending 50 percent or more of their time resetting forgotten passwords. The costs for password resets varies widely, with some studies pointing to a $25 per password reset, while a manager with Microsoft, which is working on SSO with Sun Microsystems, recently said resets commonly range from $50 to $150 per password (see "One Year Later, Sun-Microsoft Alliance Starting to Bear Fruit").

Reflection for IBM also ships with an FTP component, which received several improvements with version 13.0. The most useful enhancement is support for SSL encryption licensed internal program interfaces (LIPI) over TCP/IP. Enabling SSL for FTP will make it easier for WRQ's customers to protect their sensitive data without fumbling around with other security products. Other FTP component enhancements within version 13.0 include the capability to manage FTP client settings through the Reflection Administrator, support for IPv6 networks in the FTP client, the capability to save FTP client sessions in the layouts view, and other mainframe and Unix enhancements.

Companies that require host access software that has been certified by the government should check out Reflection for Secure IT, which delivers end-to-end encrypted SSH "tunneling" over untrusted networks, and which has met two government security standards, including FIPS 140-2 validations and DoD Class 3 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). WRQ rolled out this solution (formerly F-Secure SSH) last fall as a result of its partnership with F-Secure. WRQ says Reflection for Secure IT is the first and only SSH solution to be certified for compliance with the DoD's Class 3 PKI requirements.

Reflection for Secure IT only runs on Unix, Linux, and Windows operating systems. This release brings new support for several operating systems, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 on X64, Sun Microsystems' Solaris 10 on X64, Solaris 9 and 10 on X86, and Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 on X64.

Last month, privately held Attachmate announced the company was being sold to the same group of venture capitalists that bought WRQ last December. When the sale goes through, the plan is to merge WRQ and Attachmate, and create a company with approximately $200 million in annual revenues. The deal is expected to go through this month.

This article has been corrected. Attachmate is being bought by the same group of venture capitalists that purchased WRQ last December. Originally, the story stated WRQ was in the process of being bought. IT Jungle regrets the error. [Correction made 05/25/05].