NetAuthority Launches New Technology For Device Authentication

"As we look at the whole market for device authentication, there's not been mass adoption of any technology for strong, multifactor authentication," Chris Brennan, founder and CEO of NetAuthority, told CRN. "And there are a lot of reasons for that, ranging from hard tokens, soft tokens, digital certificates and similar types of solutions that are very complex, expensive and difficult to manage. In our device-centric approach, we can overcome all of those objections," he explained.

The company is now moving into the channel with a solution designed to combat malicious attacks resulting from user impersonation, fraudulent access and compromised sensitive data, ultimately preventing economic costs.

"There is a device key generator application that goes onto the client," Talbot Harty, vice president of product management at NetAuthority, told CRN. "The key is different for every session, and it's also non-replayable and encrypted. The system then can be plugged into their login page to perform a signed challenge from our backend,” he explained, adding that at the same time, it can “also request a key from the client, which is then validated against a unique user ID that the institution already has in place."

The net objective is a strong authentication tool with simple, lightweight integration that customers can white label and promote as their own security benefit. Targeted markets include financial services, online services, merchant services, cloud services, etc.

A multi-tiered channel program has been developed to support partners focused on the security market with either a resale or SaaS model.

"We support a self-service opt in registration model for things like online services, online banking, etc. We also provide visibility to reports on alarms and event traps and tools that can be used for policy management. So this has tremendous versatility to complement what's already there, while at the same time is also an extremely strong standalone solution."

Market demand for strong authentication is clear, and for someone like David Lesser, president and CTO of Chicago-based Nexum, Inc. which provides security solutions on either a resale or managed services model, it’s about both authentication and ease of use.

"Device security is at the top of everybody's thoughts and is finally getting the attention that it deserves," Lesser told CRN. "There is solid demand for strong authentication that is seamless and easy to deploy and support. Large companies think the process through, and know how they want things sandboxed, etc. Our job is to bring them technology necessary to take the next steps at the device-level, as well as at the individual level."

Multiple devices can be loaded into the system, provided that doing so is consistent with the security policy of the institution.