The public sector uses SMS based login security

16 Danish municipals, two regions and several ministries have selected the SMS PASSCODE® solution for protection of external logins. This approximate 20% market share in the Danish public sector, rounds off a phenomenal 2008 for SMS PASSCODE®.
 
Copenhagen, February 13th, 2009 – SMS PASSCODE® - The world's leading two-factor authentication technology using your mobile phone, today announced that the Danish public sector by large has selected the company’s leading SMS PASSCODE® two-factor authentication solution. When an organization wants to provide employees at large with the ability to work flexibly from say a home PC or a café in Paris with wireless connectivity, then added security is needed that is both simple to implement and use, that it does not involve other devices that those that are accessible to you on site and that provide the highest levels of security against the ever evolving current threats. “That is the recipe for making IT security user friendly” says David Hald, CEO at SMS PASSCODE A/S.
 
You always carry your mobile phone with you
Many organizations have implemented two-factor security using legacy dedicated hardware devises such as tokens to protect systems used for remote logins. These technologies are based on a small pocket size device or calculator type form-factor seen in some home banking solutions, that generates a unique code.
 
The SMS PASSCODE® solution as a different approach. Unlike the hardware code generators that are not connected, SMS PASSCODE® leverages the mobile phones ability to instantly and reliably receive the universally accepted SMS text messages. When a user logins into a company’s system, the user is sent an extra code via a SMS message that can verify that the user actually is the person, he or she pretends to be. “We always have our mobile phone with us. It has become a natural piece of equipment of a modern person’s daily wear. If you forget it, you will often return to pick it up. Tokens on the other hand are often considered not cool and cumbersome and represent no value to the user aside from the token code generation.  Thus, you often see people misplace them, forget them not to mention that they do run on batteries that run out of power. None of these issues are seen with your mobile phone. That is the core driver for our solution being based on a mobile phone.” says David Hald.
 
Security above all
A user friendly solution rapidly accelerates user adoption. However, higher levels of security are also achieved through the SMS PASSCODE® solution’s tight login process. Essentially, the one time passcode is only generated and sent to the users mobile phone when the users ID and password challenge has been passed successfully. This code can only be used for that specific login session. The code is therefore not exposed to be compromised by identity thieves as is seen with the alternatives. It minimizes the risks for a user's identity being compromised.
 
400 % growth in 2008
SMS PASSCODE® has substantiated lofty expectations for 2009 as 2008 yielded a 400% growth over 2007 in SMS PASSCODE® product revenues. During 2008, many of the municipals, regions and ministries added two-factor security via SMS PASSCODE® to their infrastructure resulting in a market share estimated to have reached 20% of all municipality users. “The rapid adoption is fueled by our very straight forward approach to user security that is quickly appreciated by the users. We have not had any particular vertical focus on the government sector as such, but our reseller and systems integration partners and our tight integration to technologies like Citrix, Cisco and Juniper with high penetration in the government sector has provided us with a path into these organizations.
 
Aim for continued growth in 2009
”We have high expectations and aim at doubling our revenues in 2009 compared to 2008. We have a strong team, we have had significant expansion in international markets throughout Northern and Central Europe as well as the Baltics and is actively engaged both in North America and other parts of Europe. This combined with a more dedicated market penetration effort to the public sector makes us cautiously believe, we have a good chance at doubling our market share in that sector during 2009” continues David Hald.
 
The Municipal Central Organization, 16 municipals, 3 regions and several ministries
Among the latest installations are the Kommunernes Landsforening (The Municipal Central Organization), which has replaced a token solution with SMS PASSCODE®.
 
”During the process of providing our users remote access to KL’s systems, we chose SMS PASSCODE®, as it would satisfy the users desire to avoid carrying around tokens when they already had a mobile phone handy. The solution also satisfied IT’s desire to find a solution that would be more secure and at the same time easier to administer, says Thomas Fænø, IT Chef, Kommunernes Landsforening.
 
SMS PASSCODE® supports all the standard login systems such as Citrix, Cisco, Microsoft, Juniper systems as well as generic systems based on SSL VPNs, IPsec VPNs etc. This represent pretty much all the standard systems currently deployed for employee logins in most organizations. Due to the systems plug-and-play installation, all these widely adopted access systems can be protected through a single seamless installation taking typically less than 30 minutes. Aside from the municipals listed, 2 regions (healthcare providers and hospital public services) and several ministries and public organizations have chosen to secure their user login with SMS PASSCODE®.
 
About SMS PASSCODE®
SMS PASSCODE® is the leading technology in two-factor authentication using your mobile phone. To protect against the rise in internet based identity theft hitting both consumers and corporate employees, SMS PASSCODE offers a stronger authentication via the mobile phone SMS service compared to traditional alternatives. SMS PASSCODE® installs in minutes and is much easier to implement and administer with the added benefit that users find it an intuitively smart way to gain better protection. The solution offers out-of-the-box protection of the standard login systems such as Citrix, Cisco, Microsoft, Juniper and other IPsec and SSL VPN systems as well as websites. Installed at thousands of sites, this is a proven patent pending technology. For more information visit: http://www.smspasscode.com
 
-------------------------- 
For more information, please contact Lars Barthold Nielsen, SMS PASSCODE A/S, at lbn@smspasscode.com or mobile phone +45 21 26 81 98.