Portsmouth, NH — Dec 13, 2023 —Drummond Group, LLC, a trusted interoperability, security testing and certification leader in the health IT and e-commerce sectors, today announced the completion of the second AS2 Interoperability Certification test event (AS2-4Q23) for the year 2023. AS2 enables business-to-business (B2B) gateways to connect, deliver and reply securely and reliably using the widely adopted AS2 data communication protocol. Eleven (11) leading global AS2 software vendors submitted their latest versions of AS2 products for full-matrix, fully automated interoperability group testing, facilitated by Drummond’s InSitu™ Interoperability Test Management System. A total of fourteen (14) products achieved Drummond Certification. Participating companies included Amazon Web Services, Axway, Boomi LP, CData Software, Cleo, DXC Technology Corporation, E2open, Fortra, IBM Corporation, /n software, and OpenText.
AS2 continues to be the most widely adopted messaging file transfer standard in the world. In July of 2022, it was announced by GS1 GDSN, the organization that develops and maintains product catalog data sharing standards, that GDSN Data Pools are now required to utilize Drummond Certified AS2 products.
In addition, participants in this AS2 test event updated their AS2 products to align with three new Transport Profiles (Legacy, Advanced, and Authenticate) that Drummond plans to formalize in 2024.
The Legacy Transport Profile is based on the original AS2 test plan that AS2 participants have been certifying against for over 20 years. The Legacy Transport Profile test cases are based on SHA-1 digitally signed and 3DES encrypted AS2 payloads, which are now considered outdated but are still being offered for backwards interoperability.
The Advanced Transport profile AS2 testing profile requires participants to test using SSL for all message exchanges, SHA-2 digitally signed, and AES encrypted AS2 payloads. This is becoming the standard, if not the mandate, in production AS2 message exchanges and provides the most secure payload transmission.
The Authenticate Transport profile is like the Advanced Transport profile testing requirements (i.e., SHA-2 digitally signed and AES encrypted payloads) but also adds Basic Authentication testing requirements for establishing additional trust and tighter security.
“After more than 20 years of offering SHA-1 and 3DES as the base testing profile, Drummond responded to customer and AS2 participants’ requests to modernize its AS2 testing program in AS2-2Q23,” said Aaron Gomez, Supply Chain Business Unit Leader. In AS2-4Q23, participants continued to add support and move to SHA-2 and AES and Basic Authentication. These new Transport Profiles allow AS2 products to enable stronger signing and encryption and trust for their customers with the assurance of full-matrix comprehensive interoperability testing,” he added.
The AS2-4Q23 Test Event Final Report can be viewed here. In 2024, the first test event of the year, AS2-2Q24, will tentatively commence on March 18, 2024. The second test event of 2024, AS2-4Q24, will tentatively commence on Aug. 26, 2024. AS2 software vendors that are interested in participating and updating to the Advanced and/or Authenticate Transport Profiles must pre-certify to qualify for participation in future Drummond AS2 Interoperability Test Events. For more information, or to register for upcoming AS2 or AS4 Interoperability Test Events please visit the B2B test calendar.