Strong Authentication
Do you really know who's accessing your most sensitive business information? Are you relying on static, reusable passwords to give access to your company data through VPNs, intranets and email? Security built on one form of authentication such as passwords has proven easy for hackers to beat. With many employees using easy-to-guess passwords and password-cracking programs widely available to hackers on the Internet, strong authentication is increasingly important for companies serious about providing secure access to their VPN and Remote Access applications, Web servers and applications, network operating systems and more. Strong authentication gives you the reassurance you need to verify the identity of the person accessing your network.

Frequently Asked Questions
What is strong authentication?
Why are passwords inherently insecure?

What is Strong Authentication?
Strong user authentication consists of at least two methods of identifying a user. Three methods for proving your identification exist:

Something you have
Door key, ATM card or token

Something you know
Password, PIN number

Something you are
Includes biometric authentication such as fingerprints, voiceprints or retinal scans

Each one of the three methods alone have problems. "Something you have" can be stolen. "Something you know" can be guessed, learned, shared or lost to other methods. "Something you are" is the strongest, but generally the most costly and still vulnerable to forgery. Based on these single-factor authentication problems, the next step is two-factor authentication. Combining two methods is two-factor authentication also known as strong authentication.

For example, ATM teller machines use a combination of a plastic card (something you have) and a PIN number (something you know).

Tokens and smart cards use two-factor identification to secure network data.

Why are passwords inherently insecure? Since passwords must be memorized many employees use a combination of words or letters that are meaningful to them. These passwords can then be guessed or cracked by using software available for download over the Internet. Password-cracking programs run a series of commonly used words from the dictionary until they find one that matches. These programs can test hundreds of passwords a minute.

Unauthorized users can also compromise your system by using keystroke monitoring or network monitoring, both of these methods involve an intruder stealing passwords and can happen undetected by your computer users.

Many of these attacks can occur without detection making it impossible for you to determine the true security of your data.