29th October 2025

Sage 200

We recently shared an update about changes to the Subscription Licence Service. Some customers found this unclear, so we want to provide more detail.

What's happening?

To strengthen data security, we’re blocking outdated encryption ciphers used by Windows and Windows Servers from 31 October 2025.

These ciphers aren’t part of Sage 200, but they affect how Sage 200 communicates with the Subscription Licence Service.

What are ciphers?

Microsoft uses ciphers to encrypt and protect data, which helps Sage 200 and the Subscription Licence Service communicate securely. For a connection to work, the app, operating system, and service must all support the same cipher.

What’s changing?

We’re blocking outdated cipher suites, like ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (for example, cipher suite string: TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA), that no longer meet modern security standards.

For full details, refer to the Cloudflare developer guidance.

Who's affected?

Customers using older Windows or Windows Server versions that rely on these weaker ciphers may experience issues. This typically includes:

• Windows Server 2012
• Windows 8 or earlier

 NOTE: Using an older operating system doesn’t always block you, but custom cipher settings can cause issues even on newer versions. 

What happens if communication fails?

If a customer’s system uses a removed cipher, it won’t connect to the Subscription Licence Service. They’ll see a 30-day countdown before the licence expires.

We monitored traffic to our licence service for outdated ciphers and contacted partners whose customers use them. If your site hasn’t connected to the Subscription Licence Service recently, we may not have identified it.

If we contacted you, act now. If not, review your environment to ensure compliance before 31 October.

What you need to do

To avoid disruption:

• Check and enable required ciphers using Microsoft guidance
• Upgrade the operating system on the computer running Sage software
• Install Sage software on a computer with a supported operating system

You'll find full details in our compatibility guide.

Help and support

• Sage doesn’t support operating system-level configuration and can’t advise on cipher settings
• Refer to Microsoft guidance for default cipher settings

Thank you for helping us keep your data secure.

Kind regards,

Sage Customer Support