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Celebrating 30 years of SSH - the protocol and the company behind it

Celebrating 30 years of SSH - the protocol and the company behind it

The Secure Shell (SSH) protocol is one of the bedrocks of secure, confidential communication over networks. SSH Communications Security (SSH) is the inventor of the protocol and origin of Tectia, the commercial SSH solution.

Both thirtysomethings are agile, battle-tested, and future-proof - and looking forward to the next 30 years of Quantum Safety and future-proof crypto-agility.

The first tool for secure system administration and file transfers

In 1995, Tatu Ylönen’s passwords were stolen from a university network. Three months later, he had created a first-of-its-kind encrypted and passwordless way to secure connections between a client and a host - open source SSH. Half a year later, SSH Communications Security was born out of demand for commercial solutions for the protocol.

SSH is everywhere

Secure Shell is used for remote access, file transfers and business critical applications to secure them on-premises or in the cloud. In IT, it protects bank transactions, intellectual property, government secrets, and medical records. In operational technology (OT), it secures satellites, windmills, factories, electric cars, or even washing machines. We are talking about billions of connections per day.

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SSH keys - like unruly passwords except 10 times more common

Passwords outnumber other credentials in everyday business use. But in large-scale and long-standing IT environments our customers maintain, SSH keys take the pole postion.

Passwords are susceptible to phishing and brute force attacks. Using SSH public key authentication eliminates this issue but it does bring forth a different challenge: Key governance.

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Keys need governance

It is easy to set up authentication with SSH keys, they're often self-provisioned, and decentralized. This means that keys go wild and their governance is out of control. Just like in the picture. PrivX Key Manager takes stock of all your keys and automates their control to make their use compliant and governed.

And then you migrate to Zero Trust.

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Migrate to Zero Trust

SSH Zero Trust Suite with PrivX technology migrates you to a Zero Trust state where we no longer have standing credentials like passwords or SSH keys. Instead, every session is both authorized and authenticated with a short-lived OpenSSH or X.509 certificate leaving no credentials to steal, misuse or manage.

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Open Source vs supported SSH

Many leading organizations choose the original SSH solution, Tectia, for critical communications because it provides:

24/7 support
Full support for public key infrastructure (PKI)
Cross-platform (UNIX, LINUX, Windows…) interoperability
Direct access to IBM mainframe data sets with seamless conversion, direct access to automation tools, and parallel batch jobs.
Zero Trust authentication based on x.509 or Open SSH certificates to targets.

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Crypto agile for quantum-safe future

With Tectia, you can choose the ciphers and algorithms used. Take your business applications, wrap them in a quantum safe tunnel, and ensure that the confidential data encrypted today is still safe in the years to come -- even in the age of cryptographically relevant quantum computers.

SSH Communications Security – Beyond the Protocol

Over the past 30 years, SSH has evolved into a leading provider of IT and OT security for people, systems, and networks. From our early days offering the SSH protocol to everyone, we have remained committed to securing the internet and critical infrastructure for some of the world’s most demanding organizations. We will continue to do so by advancing quantum-safe, crypto-agile and zero-trust use cases across various industries, helping make our increasingly connected world a safer place.

From Then to Now: Alumni Stories

As we celebrate 30 years of SSH, we’re spotlighting the people who helped shape our journey. In these short videos, former SSH experts share their insights, stories, and the impact SSH has had on the cybersecurity landscape.

Stephanie Fuller, SSH Alumna

SSH Fellow Suvi Lampila sits down with SSH alumna Stephanie Fuller to discuss the evolution of Secure Shell, the fall of passwords, and lessons from the early days of cybersecurity.

Markku-Juhani O. Saarinen, SSH Alumni and one of the company’s first cryptographers

SSH Fellow Suvi Lampila speaks with Markku-Juhani O. Saarinen, SSH Alumni and one of the company’s first cryptographers, about end-to-end encryption, post-quantum cryptography, the evolution of the SSH protocol, the early days of cryptography at SSH, and much more.

Tero Kivinen, Senior Fellow

SSH Fellow Suvi Lampila speaks with Senior Fellow Tero Kivinen about post-quantum cryptography, migration challenges, and lessons learned from decades of protocol development.