PortWise has announced the release of its latest remote access software suite.
Enhancements to the software suite include real-time and historical reporting, proactive identity and access management alerts, access client security, mid-point integrity, extensive application support including voice over IP (VoIP), and integration with end-point security tools from Symantec (namely Secure Desktop and Confidence Online).
PortWise 4.5 protects against evil twin and man-in-the-middle attacks, by forcing users to connect through pre-authenticated corporate wireless access points. Its new application access client security feature also ensures that only pre-approved applications can connect, and stops a device being used as a
stepping-stone into the corporate network by making corporate access exclusive.
New features aside, the PortWise offering is also interesting for its consumer-oriented, two-factor authentication solution, which can make use of mobile devices to identify users or transactions. This enables the solution to scale to millions of users very quickly, without the administrative problems of providing physical tokens, which can be easily lost or misplaced.
This results in a significantly lower total cost ownership (TCO), and a solution that uses technology consumers are already familiar with and already in the habit of taking with them.
For example, the PortWise MobileID solution allows Asia’s Yes Bank to offer ease of use and security to over 50,000 retail banking customers accessing online banking applications, and PortWise 4.5 provides a convenient authentication mechanism using mobile phones and PDAs for as little as $5 per user. Users can also employ the same mobile phone to provide a unique digital seal for high-value transactions, further guarding against ID theft and fraud.
For the success of internet-based transactions to continue, the availability of a secure authentication mechanism which is simple to use and cost effective is required. It is important for any solution to offer not only interoperability between different enterprises, but to also be reliably usable worldwide, and to scale to millions of users. Thus, exploiting the ubiquity of the mobile phone for such a purpose makes a great deal of sense.
Source: OpinionWire by Butler Group (www.butlergroup.com)
