MobilePass - Authenticating Users on the Go!

Strong Authentication Grows Up
Remote access to your network has become mission-critical. As IT administrators increasingly provide more access to more resources from more remote locations, they are charged with ensuring a secure remote access connection that proves user identity before authorizing access. Employees working remotely need access to email, files and other applications in order to perform their duties productively. Similarly, partners and even customers may need to have access to certain applications and data residing on an enterprise network. The growing number of users that need access to the network is matched only by the growing amounts of data that is available in the corporate datacenters. A user’s identity is the key to managing access to this data.
As progressive organizations continue to enable their workforces with mobile technologies, there is now an opportunity to expand the capabilities of these devices to encompass a wide range of activities, including two-factor authentication for remote network access. Commonly used mobile devices offer a great supplement to existing two-factor authentication form factors.
Ensuring that data is accessible only to the intended recipients is good business. Data in the wrong hands may result in severe business and legal liabilities (e.g. proprietary business information in the hands of competitors may diminish a competitive advantage). Similarly, customers’ private data (e.g. credit card information, health records) must be protected from unauthorized access to ward off potential legal liabilities. In fact, stricter compliance requirements in many cases require that enterprises ascertain identities of the users before providing them access to sensitive data.
Strong authentication using hardware tokens has proved to be a popular solution for establishing user identities before granting access. A growing number of enterprises have adopted hardware tokens as the de facto authentication standard for their remote users. Token-based authentication allows enterprises to easily and cost-effectively add strong authentication to existing remote access gateways.
Mobile Workforce Productivity on the Move
Mobile devices such as BlackBerries and Palm Treos have given users immediate access to the most mission-critical application of all: email. Similarly, service providers are increasingly offering new functionality to conduct online transactions from the mobile phone itself. Transferring funds, checking online account status, and even purchasing goods and services can now all be conducted on a mobile device from any location with a data connection.
And we are seeing a growing number of employees who conduct business remotely. The remote access software and hardware market has experienced tremendous growth. As an increasing number of employees have become IT literate, the need for remotely accessing corporate networks has increased. It is no longer simply a story of a sales representative trying to access customer data from a hotel room. Consultants and temporary workers conduct business from home offices. Commuters from all walks of life perform daily tasks from the train or carpool using a mobile device. Manufacturing and production workers are increasingly on the move.
According to an analyst study, there are going to be 180.2 million Smartphones in use by 2009. A large percentage of these Smartphones will end up in the hands of business users. The bottom line is that mobile devices are now an integral part of our lives, both from a professional and personal perspective. Now these devices can be leveraged to perform additional activities that previously were dependent on other technology accessories.
MobilePass: The Next Generation of Strong Authentication
Hardware tokens like SafeWord® have been the ubiquitous solution for companies large and small. They are easy to use and easy to carry. But there are many cases where the end user may prefer an alternative, both in terms of carrying convenience and administrative rollout.
SafeWord MobilePass® is a software-based authentication solution that generates one-time passcodes on a variety of popular mobile phone platforms, including Palm, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and J2ME-enabled devices. MobilePass is also available for Windows desktops, where you can retrieve your one-time passcode from your laptop or desktop PC.
With proven strong authentication algorithms to generate one time passcodes right on the mobile device, devices such as BlackBerries and Palm-based mobile phones are fast becoming an indispensable tool for workforce productivity. SafeWord MobilePass combines the security of proven two-factor authentication with the convenience of one-time passcodes generated right on your personal mobile device or PC.