Browser Security

To protect you and our members' personal health information, Shared Health Mississippi (“SH-MS”) requires a browser with 128-bit encryption strength in order to access the secure parts of our site. SH-MS is serious about protecting our members' privacy, and this level of encryption is an industry standard for the type of information we are exchanging.

WHICH BROWSER SHOULD I USE?
Fully supported browsers for the secure part of the web site include Internet Explorer(IE) v11, Mozilla Firefox's current version, Chrome's current and Safari's current version.

WHAT IS 128-BIT ENCRYPTION?
Encryption is the process of converting plain text into scrambled code to help to safeguard the transmission of confidential data. Most browsers use 40-bit encryption. Encryption at 128-bit strength provides a significantly greater amount of cryptographic protection.

The numbers "128" and "40" refer to the size of the key used to encrypt the message. With hackers gaining increasing computing power, it is necessary to employ larger keys than has been needed in the past. To compare the two, 128-bit encryption is approximately 309,485,009,821,345,068,724,781,056 times stronger than 40-bit encryption.

How can I tell if I have a 40- or a 128-bit encryption browser version? There should be information in your browser that tells you. Refer to your browsers “Help” section or home web site for details.

HOW DO I GET 128-BIT ENCRYPTION?
If you choose to upgrade your current browser, you can find patches or updated browser versions with 128-bit encryption on the home web site of your current browser supplier.