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EMC’s Security Division Expands Choice and Flexibility in Authentication with New Release of RSA® Adaptive Authentication to Provide Access to Corporate Resources Based on Risk, Cost and User Convenience

RSA® CONFERENCE 2008, San Francisco, CA— RSA, The Security Division of EMC (NYSE: EMC) announced an expansion to its authentication solution portfolio with the new release of the RSA® Adaptive Authentication platform that provides enterprises across a broad range of industries with risk-based, transparent and flexible access to corporate resources. RSA Adaptive Authentication is delivered through on-premise software or software-as-a-service and helps to provide enterprises including AMD, Geisinger Health System and Rapattoni Corporation with a low cost of ownership and increased end-user convenience through the use of a self-learning risk analysis and assessment engine using indicators such as device identification, user behavior profiling and fraud data via RSA eFraudNetworkSM community.

"For companies with large online customer populations, consumer authentication technology that runs in the background has proved to be very viable. Other firms choose to employ more tangible or detectible methods of authentication to meet their specific business and customer requirements," said Mark Diodati, Senior Identity and Privacy Analyst at Burton Group. "Likewise, different industries have requirements that can vary significantly, and as a result we see more seeking out authentication models that are less apparent to the user and expect this trend to grow."

The new release of the RSA Adaptive Authentication platform is designed for large, distributed enterprise environments and helps to identify users using self-learning risk indicators before interacting with corporate resources such as e-mail, intranets and extranets. The SaaS-based option can help to reduce costs, maintenance and overhead for authenticating large user populations. The new release of the RSA Adaptive Authentication platform is integrated with several leading SSL VPN solutions, web access management solutions including RSA® Access Manager for secure single sign-on to intranets, extranets, and portals, and RSA® Identity Verification for knowledge-based authentication. The RSA Adaptive Authentication platform is deployed at more than 8,000 organizations across the globe, currently protecting more than 225 million people against online fraud.

"Accelerating innovation relies on our network of external partners and suppliers having instant, secure access to our business-critical systems," said Eddie Garcia, IT architect, AMD. "By enabling single sign-on, risk-based authentication and a centralized security policy, RSA Access Manager and RSA Adaptive Authentication are helping us keep administration costs low and remain competitive."

RSA Adaptive Authentication is powered by the RSA® Risk Engine using self-learning risk indicators such as device identification, user behavior profiling and fraud data from the RSA eFraudNetwork® community that helps to fight against the increase in online crime targeted towards enterprises including Trojan attacks and spearphishing. As engineered, RSA Adaptive Authentication is convenient for end users as their everyday behavior patterns are learned by the risk engine and are enabled with transparent authentication. Visible authentication methods such challenge questions or out-of-band authentication through SMS, phone and e-mail are invoked only when user activity appears unusual or is of a higher risk profile based on established policies.

"With RSA Adaptive Authentication, Geisinger has been able to offer our referring and affiliated physicians secure access to critical online resources, thereby facilitating the sharing of patient information out to external physicians. We were particularly attracted by the way RSA Adaptive Authentication offers layers of security in addition to a regular user name and password, but without inconveniencing the user," said David Young, IT Director at Geisinger Health System. "Providing these physicians with secure access to a patient's electronic medical record helps to reduce the number of duplicate tests, which speeds treatment and improves the patient experience. It is ideal for clinicians working in a busy and often pressured hospital and clinic environment."

"We want to accelerate our business through a stronger security infrastructure to enhance customer confidence. Personally identifiable information such as sensitive homeowner information is sometimes unintentionally compromised by real estate agents and using adaptive authentication for convenient and secure access to networks is critical", said Tim P Johnson, Chief Financial Officer and VP of Business Development, Rapattoni Corporation. "RSA Adaptive Authentication successfully addresses these issues and also provides a springboard for further growth."

"Customers want to be able to approach authentication - and security in general - by understanding risk and then balancing risk, cost and user convenience. We are enabling this approach through software-as-a-service, on-premise software, and an appliance model - and via a broad spectrum of methods including two-factor authentication to generate one-time passwords, knowledge-based authentication, risk-based authentication and certificate management," said Tom Corn, Vice President of Product Marketing at RSA. "These authentication solutions are designed to be offered with a variety of form factors and mechanisms such as hardware tokens, software tokens embedded within mobile devices, hybrid authenticators, SMS and email, risk indicators, and out of band phone calls."