FIPS Information

Federal, state, and local government agencies, critical infrastructure providers like public utilities, and private sector organizations that do business over the public network with these agencies must use encryption that meet the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 standard.

The VShell server for Windows can run in a FIPS mode. If you need to protect data in transit as outlined by FIPS 140-2 or NIST 800-53, these products now use a FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic library and can be installed in "FIPS Mode", which will use this cryptographic library and only allow FIPS-approved algorithms.

VanDyke Software has partnered with RSA Security, Inc. to use the BSAFE Crypto-C Micro Edition cryptography module which has been tested by Atlan Laboratories, an accredited testing laboratory for FIPS compliance. This module has met all Level 1 requirements for FIPS 140-2 compliance when operated in FIPS Mode. The FIPS Validation certificate is available for review (PDF file - opens in a new window).

For more information about FIPS, please visit the VanDyke Software website.

Enabling FIPS Mode

To run VShell in FIPS mode, you must first configure the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to recognize the VanDyke Software administrative template (. adm) file; once this is done, you can enable FIPS mode by completing the follow steps:

1.   In MMC, navigate to VanDyke Software Settings and select the Enable FIPS Mode setting.

2.   Open the Properties dialog by selecting Properties from the Action menu.

3.   On the Setting tab, select Enabled.  Press the OK button to save the change.

FIPS Mode will be enabled the next time VShell is started.