Secure Global Desktop Administration Guide > Security > Improving security between Secure Global Desktop servers and application servers

Improving security between Secure Global Desktop servers and application servers

The level of security between Secure Global Desktop and your application servers varies depending on the types of application server and the protocols they use.

UNIX application servers

Normally all communications and passwords are transmitted unencrypted (in the clear) when using protocols such as telnet or rexec, for example. You can download and install SSH (Secure Shell), which provides a more secure alternative. SSH encrypts all communications between hosts and encrypts passwords before they are transmitted. See Installing and using SSH with Secure Global Desktop for more information.

Windows application servers

• Using Windows NT 4 Terminal Server Edition or Windows 2000/2003 Server: all communication uses the Microsoft RDP protocol, which is encrypted as standard.
• Using the Citrix ICA protocol: all communication uses the telnet protocol and is in the clear.

Web application servers

The level of security depends on the type of web server you are using to host the web application:

• HTTP web servers: all communications and passwords are transmitted in the clear.
• HTTPS (secure) web servers: all communications and passwords are encrypted before transmission using SSL.

For secure connections to your web application servers we recommend using HTTPS.

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