Legacy providers defaulted to older, insecure SSL/TLS versions. MSOLEDBSQL 18 as the minimum protocol version for encrypted connections. This ensures compliance with PCI DSS and HIPAA standards but may break older SQL Server instances (pre-2016) unless patched.
The Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server 18 is a high-performance, reliable, and secure data access driver that enables applications to connect to Microsoft SQL Server databases. Released in 2019, this driver is the latest version of the OLE DB driver for SQL Server, offering improved performance, new features, and enhanced security. microsoft ole db driver for sql server 18
Applications compiled against SQLNCLI or SQLOLEDB generally require only a connection string change: Legacy providers defaulted to older