The innovative, portable, and cost-effective CQ/Hayes™ solution provides a large government banking system across the country with end-to-end 3270 data encryption without sacrificing ease of use.
One of the largest government employers in the nation came to CQ for a solution. This banking agency supplies employees and other Federal Agencies across the United States with information and are constantly required to communicate with host mainframe sites over dial-up connections. This requirement led to the need for highly secure and convenient connections from remote PC, laptop, and notebook computers in the field to the central host sites.
The CQ-3270® DES/Hayes™ OPTIMA™ solution is customized for this banking system with the DES security feature. The banking system has recognized the solution as the answer for secure data communications between remote sites and the bank’s central mainframe host site applications. These applications include programs dealing with federal grant payments as well as internal mainframe access application for bank employees.
CQ and Hayes were able to provide a connectivity solution that addressed both these needs - a highly secure connection that was easy to install and use.
Secure Connection through DES Security
CQ Computer Communications, Inc. (www.cq-comm.com) provides a secure synchronous connectivity solution for transmission of sensitive data from remote PC, notebook, and laptop computers, usually at other Federal Agency sites, to the bank’s mainframe sites. The CQ-3270 DES software is a terminal emulation product that supports SNA session encryption using either software-only or external hardware encryption engines. The software provides end-to-end data encryption without any additional internal security hardware devices. CQ’s software supports IBM’s® Data Encryption Standard (DES), the recognized standard in data encryption.
The CQ software encrypts the data transmitted to the mainframe sites. This means that from the time the data leaves the remote PC until it is received by the bank’s mainframe application, the data is encrypted. The nature of the transactions that the remote Federal Agencies perform requires that these connections be subject to this level of security.
Ease of Installation Provides Extreme Convenience
The uniqueness of this solution is in its convenience and ease of installation. Through the use of Hayes™ OPTIMA™ modems manufactured by Zoom® Telephonics, Inc. (www.hayesmicro.com), remote users in the field are able to initiate communications with the mainframe site over secure dial-up lines without installing additional security hardware.
The AutoSync™ 2 technology in the OPTIMA modems supports the synchronous link protocol SNA/SDLC that is required for remote communications with the mainframe site. Synchronous communications is supported by the OPTIMA modems without the use of any special hardware cards in the PC. For example, there is no need to install an internal synchronous adapter card in the PC. In the case of notebook and laptop computer users, the installation of an internal adapter card is impossible. The user simply plugs an external OPTIMA modem into the PC’s serial COM port for synchronous mainframe connectivity. Hayes OPTIMA modems with the AutoSync 2 feature include the OPTIMA 56K and OPTIMA 336.
Types of Data Encryption
The CQ-3270 DES/Hayes OPTIMA solution supports two types of data encryption. The first type, Software-Only, eliminates the expense and maintenance of additional hardware. The software supports the split key method defined in the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) X9.17 standard. The second type, Hardlock DES, implements the use of a hardware device manufactured by Aladdin Knowledge Systems, Inc. This palm-size hardware encryption device connects directly to the parallel printer port on the PC, laptop, or notebook computer. The Hardlock DES device merges an external key part with the internal key storage thus providing DES encryption.
Both types of data encryption are supported by the CQ-3270 DES software and require the use of a Hayes OPTIMA modem.
Secure Communications with Ease
The customized CQ-3270 DES/Hayes OPTIMA solution provides Federal Agencies and bank employees the ability to perform secure PC-to-host data transmissions.
For more information on this 3270 solution or any of CQ’s other connectivity solutions, contact CQ Computer Communications at 770-844-0233. You can also contact CQ at email@cq-comm.com or visit CQ’s web site at http://www.cq-comm.com.
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