The use of the secure transport is optional and must be turned on in the configuration of the session.

By default, a new session will not use secure sockets.

The following protocols are supported for secure transport:

• TLS version 1.0 Transport Layer Security (TLS). Required by DICOM [DICOM, 3.15, B.1] and IHE [IHE2, 4.32.4.1.2]. (default)
• SSL version 3.0 Secure Socket Layer (SSL). Required for compatibility with different implementations.

Which protocol to use will be configurable. Multiple of the protocols can be configured at the same time. In that case, the server will accept any of the configured protocols. A client will use the highest protocol in the order of the list above that the server supports. If a security failure occurs in establishing a connection or while transmitting data, the socket will be closed. (This is TLS/SSL behavior). The protocols support the following features, which can use different mechanisms to implement the feature. DICOM only defines a minimum set of mechanisms that must be supported. Additional, undefined by DICOM, mechanisms are allowed.