SUDS Frequently Asked Questions

SUDS (Secure UDS) is the free FTP environment maintained by NCIGF to support the transmission of UDS files from an active insolvency to Guaranty Funds. Normally this service is paired with a custom tool called the UDS DataMapper which is directly integrated with SUDS and assists in making and distributing UDS to the Guaranty Funds.

GSI suggests using WinSCP.  Any SFTP client will work if it supports public key authentication, which is the primary authentication used for SUDS. There is a short list of incompatible clients: Five9, Kemp, Mule, paramiko 1.16.0, SSH.NET 2016.1.0 

They will not, they will however recieve duplicate emails that records were uploaded but any duplicate records overwrite the previous one.

The main difference to note is that SUDS is accessed via an SFTP program installed on your computer (such as WinSCP, Filezilla, etc) whereas the DataMapper is accessed via an internet browser at mapper.guarantysupport.com.

SUDS has a two-minute idle timeout.  As long as a transfer is in progress the connection will remain active, but after two minutes with no active transfers the system will log your user out.  There may be an error that pops up with message “Network Error: Software caused connection abort”.  The connection will need to be reestablished to continue file transfers. 

SUDS uses IP address whitelisting as one of it’s security measures. This message is a good indication that the IP address you are connecting from is not on the approved list.  Please send a message to GSI support with your current public IP address, or request assistance from GSI to help locate your IP address so we can get it added to the approved list.  

For a deeper understanding of Public Key Authentication look here.

 
Essentially, Public Key Authentication is a secure logging method using SSH. SUDS is, at its core, an SFTP service, and SFTP is FTP over SSH. Instead of a password, the procedure uses a cryptographic key pair for validation. Although using a strong password helps prevent brute force attacks, public key authentication provides cryptographic strength and automated passwordless logins. 

This method uses two cryptographic keys.  A public key and a private key.  The public key is stored in the user’s SUDS profile in GSI’s SUDS environment.  The private key is store on the user’s computer.  When SUDS is accessed, the user’s SFTP client compares the public key at the destination to the local private key. When the server confirms that the keys are a matched pair, access is granted.