Supported Encryption Protocols

Due to Payment Card Industry compliance (PCI compliance) changes, Global Reach must make changes to the way secure web pages are delivered. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but these security changes are required in order to pass PCI compliance scanning by third party agencies.

The security changes are important, however the impact to users could also be significant. Many users run modern, up-to-date web browsers and will not need to do anything or notice any changes. Unfortunately, we anticipate the change could be disruptive to others who are users of older browsers and operating systems. Consequently, Global Reach would like to inform you about these upcoming changes, so you can gauge the level of impact ahead of time:

• What is changing?
  • For a more technical description, the version 1.0 of the Transport Layer Security protocol (TLSv1) will be removed from service, due to security concerns. 
    Version 1.1 or higher (TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2) will be required from that point on.
     
• What does TLS protocol do?
  • TLS is an encryption protocol used to secure communications over computer networks. This is what enables browsers to talk to websites over https:// connections.
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• Who will these changes affect?
  • If your website has an SSL certificate, meaning it uses https:// for at least some of its pages, visitors to your website that use older browsers may be affected.
  • If you connect to webmail, an admin site, an intranet, or any other secure pages hosted on our servers using https:// with an older browser, then you may be affected.
  • Older browsers may not have the ability to use the newer TLS versions, or in some cases may not have that ability switched on by default. The oldest compatible web clients/browsers are: Firefox 27, Chrome 22, IE 11, Opera 14, Safari 7, Android 4.4, Java 8
    • If you are using Internet Explorer 8, 9, or 10 you may be able to enable TLS 1.1 and 1.2. For instructions on how to do so, click here.
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• What will end users see if they use older browsers?
  • If an end user with an older browser that does not support TLSv1.1 or higher tries to load a secure web page using https://, they will not be able to connect to it. They will instead get an error to that effect.
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• How can browsers be tested ahead of time?
  • First, ensure that your browser meets the minimum version requirement, and upgrade to the latest possible version: Firefox 27, Chrome 22, IE 11, Opera 14, Safari 7, Android 4.4, Java 8
  • Additionally, Global Reach recommends testing your browsers by loading this third-party webpage, and looking for favorable results in the Protocol Support section near the top of the page: https://dev.ssllabs.com/ssltest/viewMyClient.html
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• How can TLSv1.1 or TLSv1.2 be enabled for specific web browsers?
  • First, download the latest version of the browser and apply updates.
  • Second, check the preferences or options for SLS/TLS settings. Make sure the TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 protocols are enabled, if available. Additionally, for your security, Global Reach recommends disabling SSLv2 and SSLv3 protocols.
  • Optionally, if your browser does not support the newer TLS protocols, switch to another browser, such as Chrome or Firefox, and make sure that is up to date.
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• When will these changes start?
  • The PCI Security Standards Council is urging these changes take place as soon as possible. PCI compliance scans are already beginning to flag TLSv1-enabled sites as non-compliant, so the requirement to change is urgent. However, we are trying to provide our clients some advance notice prior to the change. Therefore, we will wait to start implementing this change until May 6, 2015, and will be fully deployed to most sites within 48-72 hours.