RSA Security Combines Building and Network Access With New RSA Smart Badging Solution
RSA Smart Badging Solution is designed to integrate multiple applications on a single smart card for enhanced security with support of certificate-based authentication
CSI CONFERENCE, CHICAGO, Ill., Monday, November 11, 2002 — RSA Security Inc. (Nasdaq: RSAS), the most trusted name in e-security®, today announced the availability of its RSA® Smart Badging Solution which is designed to enable organizations to use one smart card device to access multiple security applications. Powered by the new release of RSA SecurID® Passage software, version 3.4, the RSA Smart Badging Solution is designed to combine proximity-based physical access protection with strong network authentication on a single platform. RSA Security is the only vendor to offer a multi-application smart card solution that is designed to support passwords, digital certificates and market-leading RSA SecurID two-factor authentication technology from the same platform. This multi-application approach to authentication represents significant strides in achieving single sign-on for a positive end user experience.
Today, organizations are charged with locking down their businesses, both physically and electronically. The RSA Smart Badging Solution’s integrated approach to securing PCs, networks and physical facilities is designed to consolidate multiple applications — user authentication, digital credential storage, building access and corporate ID badging — onto one device, which helps to ease deployment, provide a stronger ROI and reduce administrative burdens for organizations worldwide. Multi-application smart cards also are intended to empower employees with access to protected data resources by offering enhanced security and mobility for their digital credentials and providing a single sign-on procedure to facilitate usability. Single sign-on, the Holy Grail of user authentication, ensures a positive user experience and relieves some of the burdens associated with administration of environments with multiple authentication procedures (i.e., reduced help desk requirements, minimal password management, etc.).
“Many enterprises are interested in increasing user convenience and justifying the cost of strengthened authentication by combining network access, application access, and building access on a single smart card,” said Dan Blum, senior vice president, research director at Burton Group. “RSA Smart Badging Solution merits evaluation because it provides a combined logical/physical authentication solution, and offers innovative value adds such as RSA SecurID token compatibility and on-card password storage for single sign-on purposes.”
RSA SecurID Passage 3.4 software is based on the new RSA SecurID 5100 smart card, a multi-purpose 32K Java card platform, which is designed to support multiple applications on a single device. This new release of RSA SecurID Passage software is intended to allow users to use their smart cards to authenticate to protected applications using passwords, digital certificates or RSA SecurID token technology. This multi-purpose approach to authentication support helps enable organizations to implement single sign-on with varying levels of security based on the value of the resources they are protecting and the risk threshold they are willing to assume. For example, they might protect VPN remote access with RSA SecurID tokens, while securing E-mail applications with digital certificates and protecting network login with passwords. Regardless, the authentication process is performed transparently by RSA SecurID Passage software, helping to significantly reduce the users’ sign-on requirements, thereby improving usability.
RSA Security recognizes the need for digital certificate management – particularly for organizations in financial services, pharmaceuticals and government – for protecting classified and sensitive information, ensuring the integrity and authenticity of the information, and controlling access to the information and the systems that process and transport this information. With this in mind, RSA SecurID Passage 3.4 software is designed to combine the security of smart cards with the strength of digital certificates, providing digital signing and certificate-based user authentication and log-on to networks and computer systems. With integrated support for this technology and its innovative password capture capability, the RSA SecurID Passage 3.4 solution is designed to enable application single sign-on for end users, while helping ensure enhanced protection for organizations.
“RSA Security understands the need for a holistic approach to organizational security,” said Bill McQuaide, senior vice president of RSA Security’s authentication division. “Organizations are concerned with securing their entire operation, which includes their physical facilities as well as their electronic resources. The RSA Smart Badging Solution is designed to help organizations do just that. It’s a single platform that is intended to enable organizations to efficiently and cost-effectively protect multiple aspects of their business, while enabling single sign-on for their end users.”
Pricing and Availability
RSA SecurID Passage 3.4 software will be available in December, 2002. For more information about RSA SecurID Passage software, please call 1-877-RSA-4900 or visit RSA Security at http://www.rsasecurity.com/products/securid/smartcards.html.
About RSA Security Inc.
RSA Security Inc., the most trusted name in e-security, helps organizations build trusted e-business processes through its RSA SecurID two-factor authentication, RSA ClearTrust® Web access management, RSA BSAFE® encryption and RSA Keon® digital certificate management product families. With approximately one billion RSA BSAFE-enabled applications in use worldwide, more than 12 million RSA SecurID authentication users and almost 20 years of industry experience, RSA Security has the proven leadership and innovative technology to address the changing security needs of e-business and bring trust to the online economy. RSA Security can be reached at www.rsasecurity.com.