Halon Protect 26.1: Strengthening gateway-enforced encryption with PGP and S/MIME

With Halon Protect 26.1, we're strengthening gateway-enforced email encryption with PGP and enhanced S/MIME support, giving providers two widely adopted standards for protecting email at the infrastructure level. This release also introduces Argon2 password hashing to the Extras module library and delivers performance improvements to inbound processing. Together, these updates continue to advance Halon Protect as a platform where security, compliance, and operational flexibility work hand in hand. 

Let’s take a closer look  

Extending encryption capabilities with PGP and enhanced S/MIME.  

Email encryption at the gateway level is increasingly a requirement rather than a nice-to-have, particularly for providers serving customers in regulated industries such as healthcare, finance, and government.

S/MIME is the most widely supported standard for public-key encryption and signing of email, built into the majority of modern email clients. In the previous release, we introduced S/MIME signing and verification capabilities.

Halon Protect 26.1 builds on that foundation with improved support covering the full Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) lifecycle:

 Signing
 Verification
  Encryption
  Decryption

PGP encryption support to the platform

Alongside S/MIME, this release adds PGP encryption support to the platform. PGP remains the encryption standard of choice in many technical communities and is a requirement for providers whose customers depend on it for secure communication. With PGP now available at the gateway, providers can enforce encryption policies for PGP-based workflows with the same centralized approach.

Serve diverse customer bases without compromise

Having both standards available means providers can serve diverse customer bases without compromise, whether those customers standardize on S/MIME, PGP, or need to support both. Encryption policies are applied centrally at the infrastructure level, removing the burden of key management and tooling changes from end users.

For providers operating in healthcare, finance, government, or any sector where message confidentiality is non-negotiable, this is a big step forward in what Halon Protect can deliver out of the box.

And we're not done yet. Expect further encryption-related enhancements in upcoming releases.

Argon2 password hashing

Argon2 is a modern password hashing algorithm that won the Password Hashing Competition and is widely regarded as one of the most secure hashing standards available today. It is specifically designed to resist GPU-based cracking and other modern attack techniques through memory-hard computation.

With the new Argon2 Extras module, teams can implement stronger credential protection in authentication workflows running within Halon Protect. This helps reduce the risk of credential compromise and strengthens authentication security across custom workflows.

Platform improvements and performance 

Halon Protect 26.1 also includes performance improvements to inbound processing and queue policy evaluation, along with operational refinements such as environment variable support in configuration files, TLS for the control socket, and new CLI tooling for queue analysis and DNS resolver inspection. These updates continue to strengthen Halon Protect as a foundation for building and operating secure, high-volume email infrastructure.

Together, the improvements give operators:

  Better visibility
  Stronger control
  More efficient day-to-day management of inbound email flows