Google, Facebook and Amazon add two-factor ID

Since its launch in January 1996 millions of organizations have made the switch to Google Apps. 30 million users now depend on the messaging and collaboration tools that make up the Google Apps suite.

Google Apps is a series of Web-based applications with offerings–email, calendar, word processing, and spreadsheet–comparable to those found in traditional office software bundles. 

IronKey announced that its Trusted Access for Banking product can allow banks to protect their commercial banking customers from the potential risk from allegedly compromised RSA SecurID authentication tokens.

IronKey says that Trusted Access for Banking allows banks to continue using their existing SecurID deployments and banking applications without concern. It is designed to isolate online banking users from advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks using toolkits such as ZeuS and SpyEye rather than trying to detect them. 

Securing online identities is a hot topic. Gemalto and Microsoft Corp. have partnered to bring a product to market combining smart cards with cryptography to enhance privacy and trust. Gemalto’s James McLaughlin discusses the partnership with Microsoft and how it may change the way people identify themselves online. “It allows a person a way to present the claims about themselves to someone else or something else, a service for instance, and do that in a way that’s secure and allows them to control how much information is sent to that service or to that person,” McLaughlin says.

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RSA was recently the victim in a hacker which may have lead to information related to RSA’s SecurID two-factor authentication products being taken.

Art Coviello, executive chairman at RSA, informed the public about the attack in an open letter on RSA’s Web site. “Our investigation has led us to believe that the attack is in the category of an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT). Our investigation also revealed that the attack resulted in certain information being extracted from RSA’s systems,” the letter states. 

An interview with Ben Boulnois, regional manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at DigitalPersona , detailed how biometric technology adoption in the workplace can help smooth over issues technophobes have with their regular workplace technology as well as ease the job of network administrators, according to a SC Magazine article.

Additionally, Boulnois speaks of how biometrics can help technology conform to people rather than expecting people to conform to technology. 

The Georgia State Senate has approved a bill that would require senior citizens in the state to acquire a biometric ID card to access Medicaid for health care, according to a WSBTV article.

The new bill, which passed on a 34-21 margin, stipulates the use of fingerprint biometrics for each of the ID cards. 

Quirky biometric modality praised, has yet to catch on

Maybe you’re a hunt and peck typer. Or perhaps you zip around the keyboard but linger over certain keys. And it’s possible that you type much faster after you’ve had your morning coffee than you do when 5 o’clock rolls around.

A person’s typing patterns can be as unique as a fingerprint or signature. That’s the idea behind keystroke dynamics, and some technology firms have built their business around using this biometric as a form of authentication.