On June 24, 2015, Jay Modi announced the release of Shield 1.3 and Shield 1.2.2, with Shield 1.2.2 addressing bug fixes and Shield 1.3 introducing new features, including the addition of the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) realm for authentication without storing user credentials. Shield 1.3 also incorporates a new index-based output for auditing, allowing audit events to be indexed for search and analysis using Elasticsearch. Notable changes include the removal of the sha2 and apr1 hashing algorithms for the cache.hash_algo setting, requiring users to switch to supported alternatives or the default ssha256, and the users file now only supporting bcrypt password hashes, which aligns with the esusers tool. Users are directed to the Shield documentation for detailed upgrade instructions and are encouraged to provide feedback in the Shield forums.