23-11-09   SecurEnvoy predicts death of the token 

~nearly half of UK organizations plan to authenticate staffvia SMS by 2011 ~ 

Research from Goode Intelligence has found 40 per cent of businesses plan to implement staff authentication technology via mobile phone over the next two years. SecurEnvoy, the innovators in two-factor authentication via SMS, predicts this trend will mean the death of the hardware token.

Andy Kemshall,co-founder at SecurEnvoy, commented: “Everything is going mobile these days andthis will only continue in the coming years. With 40 per cent of organizations turning to mobile authentication by 2011, as predicted by Goode Intelligence, I believe the separate hardware token alternative will begin to drop off the radar. This technology was invented around the same time as VHS tapes, while SMS based tokenless technology emerged at a similar time to Blu-Ray. The development of VHS to Blu-Ray is simply technological evolution. In the same way, change from token to tokenless technology is inevitable.”

“Hardware tokens have huge costs when it comes to manufacturing and deployment, not to mention their environmental impact. Given that most people have a mobile phone already,there are no addition costs to authentication over the mobile network and phones are a much greener alternative.”

Kemshall continued: “There is also the burden of carrying hardware tokens. Staff rarely forget their mobile, but all too often tokens are misplaced or malfunction and have to be re-ordered, costing time and money.”

Campbell Bradford from 2^nd Phase, the Australian distributor of SecurEnvoy said “Recent business cases in Australia showed cost savings between 68% and 81% over token technologies means sms based authentication can no longer be ignored on the flimsy excuse that latency will be a problem in Australia. SecurEnvoy have overcome this by pre-loading the mobile with passcodes so they are always available even in sms blackspots. The technology is mature and inexpensive. Even the banks are pushing users to this authentication. It’s not just for the big boys anymore. If you need to cut costs this is as easy as it gets.”

Alan Goode, founder of Goode Intelligence stated: “The mobile phone is the perfect user-centric device for authenticating employees, Internet banking customers and citizens into your network.”