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 Dave
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Imprivata advances sign-on technologies
Users can securely log on without typing username and password
I had a chat with Imprivata CTO David Ting last week about the
new Imprivata OneSign FastPass. It's interesting in its own right, but what
grabbed me was something that's on the horizon for an upcoming release.
What's available now are two different versions of FastPass:
* FastPass for Proximity Cards – this lets users quickly and securely log
on to different workstations simply by touching their ID badge on a reader
without having to type their Windows username and password every time they log
on. Users perform a secure, two-part authentication at the beginning of their
work shift by touching their ID badge on a reader and entering a PIN or password
as the second factor. From that point on, FastPass starts an authentication
grace period during which users can access any shared workstations by touching
their card on the reader.
* FastPass for Finger Biometrics – this lets users quickly and securely log
on to different workstations simply by touching their finger on a reader without
having to type their Windows username and password. OneSign's patented
fingerprint technology identifies and authenticates the user in a single step.
Neither of these is revolutionary -- similar technology (the quick
authentication part, at least) is available from others. But the combination
with Imprivata's proven single sign-on technology is an added plus. It's worth checking
out, especially for environments such as healthcare where users are moving
frequently among different workstations.
In talking about these quick sign-on technologies, Ting and I got to
discussing session-ending utilities. For the 25 years I've been trying to help
network admins cope with their jobs the most frequent question I get is: How do
I automatically lock, or kill, a session by an inactive user? My rejoinder has
always been, "How do you know they're inactive?" Most inactivity
monitors look at keyboards and set a countdown timer whenever a key is struck
(or the mouse is moved). If the timer runs out, the session is closed and an
authentication screen pops up. But this isn't what you want to happen when your
boss is watching a Webinar (or other streaming media content). So David was
quick to tell me about a new addition to the FastPass product coming later this
year.
He noted that most laptops, and many desktops, have integrated cameras.
Add-on cameras (that attach to your monitor) are relatively inexpensive. So what
this new software will do is to take your picture during authentication.
Periodically during the session it will "peek" through the camera
again and if the person from the authentication picture can't be seen it will
start the timer countdown. It will keep checking until the timer runs out, so
that if you've stepped away to grab a book, for example, the countdown will be
ended when you sit down again. This is revolutionary -- the biggest improvement
in inactivity monitoring in, like, forever. Watch for this in the fall.
Subscribe
to this and other newsletters.
IBM upgrades Tivoli Identity Manager
Plus, Zscaler brings security to the cloud
Lots of announcements hitting the wires over the past couple of
weeks, so we'll do a quick roundup in this issue and the next, and then go in
depth in later issues for the announcements that warrant it.
Let's start with last week's IBM news, a new release of Tivoli Identity
Manager (TIM). Martin Kuppinger, among others, wonders why this only got a minor
upgrade version number (5.1) instead of a full jump to 6.0 in light of all
that's packed in. Read his note
and then check
it out for yourself.
Those of you interested in cloud computing should look into
new-on-the-horizon Zscaler,
which bills itself as "the industry-first multi-tenant SaaS
[software-as-a-service] security provider". The company claims:
1. Better architecture – true multi-tenant, true SaaS (no hardware/software
required); scalable; distributed (>20 data centers); lightening-fast
load-balancing. Results – very high performance, minimal cost and disruption.
2. Better technology – such as in-depth content X-Ray inspection, which is
like a "virtual strip search" at very high speed, stopping suspicious
actions.
3. Integrated security – protects against bi-directional threats inbound
(malicious code and content, malware, viruses, spyware, cross-site scripting,
botnets, phishing, malicious URLs, Web content) -- and outbound (data leak,
tunneling of other protocols through HTTP, use of anonymizers to bypass
security). It also enables management (traffic control, URL filtering, bandwidth
control), compliance (data leak/loss prevention/DLP) and reporting. Certainly
worth a look.
Two companies that are no strangers to this newsletter -- Sailpoint
and CyberArk
-- have partnered to, in their words, enable "… organizations to
inventory and manage privileged accounts; to understand the business role and
organizational membership of users requesting and using privileged accounts; and
to monitor the actions users take with these accounts." Check both to see
if there's any synergy, and if you can benefit.
Finally, a reminder that right after May's European Identity Conference I reported
that Microsoft's Vittorio Bertocci, when asked how easy it was to enable an
application to use CardSpace, replied "even the brain-dead can do it."
Well now he's posted a how-to video and, I'll have to admit, it does look easy-peasy.
See for your self here.
No more room today, but more coming in the next issue -- stay tuned!
©2009 by Network World, Inc. 118 Turnpike
Road, Southborough, Massachusetts 01772. Reprinted from Network World.
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