By Brandon Teoh
DigitalPersona solutions come in the combination of software and hardware.
Up to date, its products consist of:
- DigitalPersona Pro Enterprise (software)
- U.are.U 4500 Fingerprint Reader (hardware)
- U.are.U Fingerprint Keyboard (hardware)
Based on combination of these products, the following solutions are available to the market to cater for various authentication and access management challenges.
- Strong authentication – Use fingerprints, smartcards and other authentication methods to replace or to complement passwords.
- Single sign-on & password management -Boost productivity and reduce support calls by getting rid of passwords for all programs.
- Access recovery – Recover access to computers when legitimate users are locked out.
- Secure email and documents – Help employees and business partners share information safely.
- Two-factor VPN access – adding one-time passwords to existing Virtual Private Networks
Personally, I recommend DigitalPersona Pro Workgroup for Malaysian enterprises – it is a SaaS solution for controlling how your users log onto their computers and applications.
Leveraging on this cloud-based solution not only guarantee faster deployment and faster ROI, it also provides a stepping stone platform in moving towards the implementation of a better and more powerful enterprise class authentication and access management infrastructure.
SMEs should definitely leverage on this rather than attempting to acquire self-managed solution or simply not having any security control of this kind.
The question to ask is why trust DigitalPersona to the extend that authentication and access management of critical systems and information are being outsource-managed?
It is because DigitalPersona knows and understands more compliance than most of us do.
For instance, it supports the following industrial standards:
1.) Active Directory for centralized management
2.) Multi-credential authentication – mix and match authentication credentials: Windows Password, PIN, Fingerprint, Face, Contactless Cards (HID iCLASS memory cards; HID Crescendo C700 PKI cards; MIFARE Classic 1k, 4k and mini memory cards), Smart Cards (PKCS11 and CSP-compatible), Proximity Cards (HID 125 kHz) and Bluetooth Phones for multi-factor authentication
3.) Shared-user workstation (“kiosk”) logon control – Support for multiple Kiosk environment under Citrix/RDP for fast kiosk access
4.) Network logon control – secure access to VPNs, Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) and other RADIUS-compatible applications with OATH-based one-time passwords (OTPs) for token-less VPN logon
5.) US fingerprint standard U.are.U – ISO 19794-4 fingerprint image standard, ANSI/INCITS 381-2009 data interchange format, Minex Feature Extractor Certification, Wavelet Scalar Quantization (WSQ) and NIST Fingerprint Image Quality (NIFQ) – for biometric authentication.
Thus, leveraging on DigitalPersona solutions guarantees effectiveness, compliance and better control.
Case Study
LendingTools.com, Inc. specializes in design and delivery of Web-based applications for the financial services industry. The LendingTools.com ExtraNet FP Financial Portal Services system is used by over 2,000 community banks to process financial transactions in excess of a billion dollars every day. Bank employees use passwords to access the system and depending on the transaction and dollar amount the system requires additional authorization.
With SOX and GLBA regulatory mandates and FFIEC guidelines, LendingTools.com needed an authentication method other than passwords that would track and assure only authorized users gain access to the system and approve the high dollar transactions.
It eventually deployed DigitalPersona Online, a fingerprint-based authentication solution.
Over 3,500 fingerprint readers have been deployed with over 12,000 bank employees using DigitalPersona Online to securely access the ExtraNet FP Financial Portal Services system to process wire and image transactions.
As a result, DigitalPersona Online has enabled LendingTools.com to provide their community bank end-users with secure access to the ExtraNet FP Financial Portal Services system; assurance that only authorized employees approve large financial transactions; and audit trails to assist with compliance regulations.
Malaysia Personal Data Protection Act 2010
The PDPA 2010 which was passed by Malaysian parliament in May 2010 mandates that personal data must be handled with the utmost priority in the course of following 7 activities:
- Collecting information
- Recording information
- Holding information
- Storing information
- Organising information
- Publishing information on the Internet
- Making information available
It is applicable to business entities which process information pertaining to personal data for commercial activities such as marketing and sales.
Malaysian businesses must implement some forms of authentication and access management for both security and compliance with PDPA 2010, failing which will result in possibility of criminal offences that include fines and imprisonment.
DigitalPersona products are available from resellers in Malaysia.
