Editing Private Communications Technology

{{Security protocol}}

'''Private Communications Technology''' (PCT) 1.0 was a protocol developed by [[Microsoft]] in the mid-1990s. PCT was designed to address security flaws in version 2.0 of [[Netscape Communications Corporation|Netscape]]'s [[Secure Sockets Layer]] protocol and to force Netscape to hand control of the then-proprietary SSL protocol to an open standards body.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}}

PCT has since been superseded by SSLv3 and [[Transport Layer Security]]. For a while it was still supported by Internet Explorer, but PCT 1.0 has been disabled by default since [[IE 5]] and the option was removed in IE6.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260749|title = Internet Explorer Does Not Display Applicable Client Certificates|date = January 27, 2007|accessdate = 2014-10-20|website = |publisher = Microsoft|last = |first = }}</ref> It is still found in [[Internet Information Services|IIS]] and in the Windows operating system libraries, although in [[Windows Server 2003]] it is disabled by default. It is used by old versions of [[Microsoft Message Queuing|MSMQ]] as the only choice.

Due to its near disuse, it is arguably a security risk, as it has received less attention in testing than commonly used protocols, and there is little incentive for Microsoft to expend effort on maintaining its implementation of it.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://graphcomp.com/info/specs/ms/pct.htm The Private Communication Technology (PCT) Protocol] (published 1995)

[[Category:Cryptographic protocols]]
[[Category:Obsolete technologies]]