Nearly everyday we hear an announcement of a new data breach or loss of corporate data. On top of that, companies are also increasingly challenged with adhering to new corporate security guidelines. As a result, the workforces of every industry have to grapple with the increased security measures brought about to solve these issues. What these businesses must keep in mind is that protecting themselves from these issues cannot be done at the expense of productivity.

One of the most pressing concerns in the workplace is the vast amount of time spent logging in and out of password protected applications, which in turn, causes a significant decrease in user productivity. In addition, users are increasingly working remotely, adding to the need for strong authentication methods that can meet the needs of today’s mobile workforce. What organizations are ultimately looking for is a simple to implement and deploy system that ensures strong access policies, while at the same time, allows users to gain secure access to the applications they need.

As a result, many corporations are implementing authentication policies that are much stronger than the regular password schemes that have been commonplace to date. The need for companies to deploy strong authentication options is being driven primarily by user environment, habits and workflow.  A more and more viable answer is finger biometrics, which has emerged as a solution for securing user identity – the ultimate in security and convenience.

For organizations, finger biometrics is an effective way to improve access management issues without increasing complexity (i.e. all you need is your finger), and combined with a single sign-on (SSO) solution, helps to relieve employees’ login/logout pains and provide companies with a stronger overall security system. And, many computers offer the readers as part of their systems.

And while biometrics is taking stream in all industries, other forms of strong authentication are garnering increased attention as well, as organizations are looking to better secure remote access policies. These methods range from One-Time Password (OTP) tokens to smart cards, proximity badges and USB tokens. Now is the time to consider these options, as they are not only available in many desktops and workstation computers, but are becoming more and more affordable as well.

In today’s security-conscious world, the security of biometrics and other forms of strong authentication can allow a company to adhere to strict government and industry mandates for security, privacy and accountability. Finding the right strong authentication method(s) can help companies meet stringent requirements in a cost-effective way that not only improves access management policies and strengthens a company’s overall security posture, but contributes to a safer, more secure corporate world.

Named one of InfoWorld’s Top 25 CTO’s of 2006, David has more than 20 years of experience in developing advanced imaging software and systems for high security, high-availability systems. Prior to founding Imprivata he developed biometric applications for government programs and web-based applications for secure document exchange. David was formerly the technical manager of Kodak’s Boston Technology Center, a systems development group for Eastman Kodak. He managed an engineering group that developed the software platform used in most of Kodak’s digital photography products including Photo CD print applications.

David regularly blogs on Identity 360 – Imprivata’s blog. For more information on Imprivata, visit their web site at http://www.imprivata.com/.

Comments:

Add Your Comment

Name: Company name:

Email:

(We will never sell your name or e-mail address to anyone)

Comment:

Remember my personal information
Notify me of follow-up comments?

Please enter the word you see in the image below: