Product Bulletin No. 2291
End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the
Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance DES (K8) Bundles
Cisco Systems® announces the end of life of the Cisco® PIX® 501 Security Appliance DES (K8) Bundles. The last day to order the Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance DES Bundles is March 11, 2004. Table 1 describes the end-of-life milestones, definitions, and dates for the Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance DES Bundles. This announcement does not affect Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance 3DES/AES (K9) Bundles or the Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance chassis, as they will continue to be orderable.
The easing of import and export restrictions in most countries for cryptographic devices with keys greater than 64 bits has enabled customers to select solutions that support the stronger Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption algorithms over solutions that only support the DES encryption algorithm. The 3DES and AES encryption algorithms (and their larger key sizes) offer several benefits over DES, with the primary benefit being enhanced data security against a variety of cryptographic attacks, including brute-force attacks.
The Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance 3DES/AES Bundles support 168-bit 3DES and up to 256-bit AES encryption—in addition to 56-bit DES—for virtual private networking (VPN), secure remote management and more. The Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance DES Bundles, on the other hand, only provide 56-bit DES encryption for these same features. Given the security benefits of 3DES/AES encryption and no difference in price between Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance DES and 3DES/AES Bundles, customers are encouraged to migrate to the Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance 3DES/AES Bundles for small office and home office network security applications. Table 2 provides relevant information for migrating from the Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance DES Bundles to the Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance 3DES/AES Bundles.
Table 1 End-of-Life Milestones and Dates for the Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance DES (K8) Bundle
This action does not affect the services-and-support contract because it applies to the Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance and not the end-of-sale bundle part number. Table 2 lists Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance DES Bundle part numbers and recommended Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance 3DES/AES Bundle migration options.
Table 2 Product Part Numbers Affected by This Announcement
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Customers with an existing Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance DES Bundle can request a 3DES/AES encryption license upgrade at no additional cost via the following URL (CCO login required):
http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/Software/FormManager/formgenerator.pl
Additional Information
For more information about the Cisco PIX Security Appliance Series, go to:
http://www.cisco.com/go/pix
For more information about Cisco PIX 501 3DES/AES bundles, go to:
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/pd/fw/sqfw500/prodlit/px501_ds.pdf .
For more information about Cisco products, contact your Cisco account manager and/or Cisco Channel Partner.
For more information about the Cisco End-of-Life Policy, go to:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/prod_end_of_life.html .