Absolute Software recently announced a significant upgrade for its popular secure remote access and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution. Version 14 of Secure Access introduces many compelling new features and updates that administrators will find beneficial. In addition, crucial security vulnerabilities in the previous release have been addressed.
New Features
Absolute Secure Access v14.x includes many enhancements over previous releases. Here are a few of the highlights.
Improved Performance
Absolute Secure Access v14 provides much faster throughput on multi-gigabit networks (e.g., 2.5Gbps Wi-Fi 6E/7 or 10Gbps wired). New kernel-level optimizations reduce CPU overhead by up to 40% on high-speed links, improving performance on faster networks.
Modern Certificate Handling
SHA-1 has been deprecated since 2011, and beginning with Absolute Secure Access v14, support for SHA-1 certificates has been removed completely.
Enhanced Client Auto Reconnect
Improved client auto-reconnect logic now survives Windows standby mode for more than 12 hours (previous versions were capped at around 4 hours). This will reduce frustration when devices return from standby for extended periods.
Automatic Host Group Updates
Host groups are an excellent way to streamline policy configuration for services like Microsoft 365 and AWS. These cloud providers publish the IP addresses of their services, which are dynamic and often change over time. Absolute Secure Access v14 now supports automatic host group updates for these services. Microsoft 365 updates occur every 28 days, and AWS updates occur every 5 days by default. This interval is configurable for administrators.
Security Updates
Absolute Secure Access v14 closes four server-side CVEs as well as 14 third-party CVEs (Apache, OpenSSL, etc.) that were not patched in v13.x.
Summary
If you have deployed previous versions of Absolute Secure Access, consider upgrading to v14.x today. You’ll gain improved performance, reduced administrative overhead, critical security updates, and much more. If you’d like help with your migration or want to learn more about the new capabilities in Absolute Secure Access v14, fill out the form below, and I’ll provide more information.
Additional Information
Absolute Secure Access Enterprise VPN Advanced Features In Depth
