It is important not to forget that potential threats also exist within an organisation as well as those originating from external sources. Most networks hold commercially sensitive or personal information and a duty of care exists to protect these assets and data. Almost all networks rely on straightforward “user name and password” logins but this approach has limitations. It is common for our audits to show that many users on a network will know the identities and passwords for several of their colleagues. In many instances this might not be a problem but where sensitive information needs to be kept secure this simple method is insufficient.

For these applications Presence provides strong authentication systems that provide a much higher level of login security. To address this need Presence offers the ActivCard token-based authentication system.

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ActivCard comprises a combination of hardware and software that provides extremely secure login control for demanding environments. The hardware component is a small code generating device. When the user’s PIN number is entered into the code generator, the device responds by creating an authentication code which is required as the user logs in to the system. The PIN number will only work with the code generator allocated to the user and the authentication code changes each time the PIN is entered. Each code lasts for just one minute before it expires and a new code has to be generated. As a final safeguard the code generator response slows down if an incorrect PIN is entered so if the user fails repeatedly to use the correct code the delay before the new authentication code is displayed becomes very long.

There are a number of other methods of providing additional authentication of access rights using biometric methods of user identification but these are still in the early adopter phase of deployment. Because of this the technology for, for example, iris recognition is expensive. However as these types of biometric authentication mature they will be added to the Presence portfolio.

ActivCard delivers integrated solutions for strong authentication and trusted digital identities that extend existing identity management platforms, focus on reducing your costs and satisfy compliance regulations by increasing IT security administration and operations capabilities. ActivCard Secure Remote Access, Single Sign-On, and Enterprise Access Card solutions can be deployed as point solutions to meet a specific and immediate need, and they also seamlessly integrate together to bring a superior administrative and cost efficient experience to customers that exists no where else.