Four-Factor Authentication Makes its Debut!
Priva Technologies Announces First Of Deployment Deals With Legacy Electronics
ARLINGTON, VA, Jul 21 - An authentication system, the first to offer four factor identity verification, is making its debut this summer among a select group of business, financial services and government organizations across the United States, according to Priva Technologies, Inc.
Among the first commercial users of Priva’s new Cleared Security PlatformTM is Legacy Electronics Inc. of San Clemente, CA., a leading producer of computer memory modules. The company will use the ClearedTM platform to protect its accounting system that controls sensitive sales, inventory and purchasing information, according to Jason Engle, Legacy’s president and CEO. Other utilities requiring robust authentication will be created later using Priva’s API tool kit that “allows the linkage of a broad variety of existing and customized applications quickly and easily.”
Engle said that the Cleared platform “will help us to address the most important barriers to the implementation of security in the workplace: cost, complexity and usability. Priva has demonstrated that its approach is cost effective, virtually eliminates integration and management issues and is as easy to use as an ATM card."
"Not only does the Cleared platform provide robust user authentication, it also creates an industrial strength protective barrier to intrusion. Unlike other ID systems, it uses up to four identification factors, including biometrics and a series of unique challenges between the ClearedKey token and a secure, remote authentication server, which verifies the credentials of registered users," Engle added.
"The Cleared platform uses a token, called the ClearedKeyTM, which contains its own integrated fingerprint reader, avoiding the need to store biometric information in a vulnerable central database. In addition, the ClearedKey contains a non-replicable microchip that authenticates the user as the registered owner of the token," according to Priva’s founder and CEO, Jeff Minushkin.
"An optional PIN identifier provides a third factor of identity verification. And, finally, in online usage, the chip conducts several challenge/response procedures between it and a secure, host-based authentication server to further prove the user is who he or she claims to be."
Minushkin said Priva will be making announcements of additional new Cleared users over the next several weeks and, in September, will be unveiling a developers’ tool kit “designed to provide CIOs and CTOs in commercial and government organizations to initiate their own deployments inside and outside their enterprises using the Cleared platform."
"The system was designed from the ground up, with our own patent-pending technology, to provide secure authentication, whatever the application. Thus, it can be linked to just about any legacy or custom utility that requires access control quickly and easily," according to Minushkin.
For the most part, current authentication systems validate only two ID factors– something the user knows, such as a PIN or password, and something he or she has, a credit card or token.
"Three factor authentication also verifies who a person is via biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, which need to be scanned and compared to registered physical information stored in a central data base, adding costs and creating security and privacy problems," said Minushkin.
Jeff Berkman, Priva’s Chief Technology Officer noted that Priva had achieved unified three factor authentication capabilities well over a year ago. "But we had put several years of research into this project and concluded that our platform was capable of achieving much higher degrees of trust and reliability by adding a significant, fourth factor – a challenge/response procedure that, among other things, provides for total system non-repudiation. The Cleared platform will prove that a transaction has taken place within a particular device and that the parties were who they said they were."
Berkman noted, "Within the next several months we will be showcasing our next generation version of the ClearedKey that will allow new forms of multiple fingerprint capabilities and other rights management features to provide even higher levels of identity validation, verification and digital trust."
About Legacy Electronics
Founded in 1993 and located among the new high-technology companies of South Orange County, California, Legacy Electronics is an ISO 9001:2000 certified manufacturer, designer and tester of high-speed, high-density memory modules, printed circuit boards, and other computer products. Their 15,000-square-foot contract manufacturing headquarters facility is located in the Amanecer Industrial Complex in San Clemente, and accommodates over $5 million in surface-mount technology (SMT) and automated test (ATE) equipment. The customer response to Canopy™ products and services in 2001 and 2002 has allowed Legacy to increase personnel numbers by 30% and add an additional manufacturing shift to meet demand. www.legacyelectronics.com
ABOUT PRIVA TECHNOLOGIES
Priva Technologies, Inc. provides a stand-alone, secure authentication solution for the builders, owners and managers of transaction systems that utilize, or should utilize authentication security. These include, applications that provide business-to-business transactions, enterprise security, secure e-mail, single-sign-on, travel reservations, online and offline purchases, payment services, banking, and financial products which are all empowered by user-friendly, highly secure authentication. Unlike other technologies that are notoriously hard to install or scale, have limited flexibility or are difficult for individuals to use, Priva's authentication system easily integrates with all sizes of enterprises and provides clear convenience for consumers. Priva, a privately held Delaware corporation, is headquartered in Arlington, VA, with engineering and technology facilities in Cupertino, CA