Positive Networks Blog

This is the first post in a series of buzzword clarification articles. Remote access is a complex space, and a lot of technical terms get tossed around. I’ll see if I can cut through some of the jargon, starting with two-factor authentication.

First, authentication is the process that lets Positive find out exactly who is logging in. The traditional way to do that is with a username and a password - just like most programs and services.

However, the username/password combination has a weakness - if your password is discovered, you can be impersonated, and worse, the attacker will have access to your company’s network.

There are lots of solutions to this problem, and one of them is two-factor authentication. Two-factor means that authentication requires something you have and something you know. The something you have is some sort of physical item, and the something you know is a secret PIN.

The security of the system lies in the fact that there is only one token, and without it, an attacker cannot log into your account. On the other hand, if an attacker did happen to get your token (say your purse or wallet is stolen), the system would still refuse to let him or her in without the PIN.

There are several companies that provide hardware and software for two-factor authentication. If your company already has a two-factor solution in place, Positive Networks can integrate with it. Or, if you don’t have two-factor but are interested in trying it out, we have a new two-factor authentication service in beta testing at the moment - give us a call and we can get you into the beta program. I’m really excited about this new offering, and I’ll have a lot more to say about it once we take the wraps off publicly.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions or suggestions for future topics, feel free to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 8:59 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.