Market Overview Strong Authentication

For companies and their employees as well as for online-services and their customers respectively, authentication with username and password are no longer considered bearable. The multitude of user accounts and the increasing complexity that passwords are expected to have, simply brought this mode of authentication to a point where users and administrators are no longer able to cope with it. Be it the increased level of security, a.k.a. authenticity, required by the service provider, or compliance requirements: other means of authentication are necessary to keep up with future system designs and customer experience expectations. Still, we all suffer from having to remember a multitude of these credentials and now companies are looking for ways out of this password-trap. But what to choose from an ever growing market of clever and appealing authentication solutions? A question not lightly answered in general, as requirements for different applications and services might greatly differ.

Depending on what purpose the new authentication mode shall serve - be it more usability, general applicability in multiple use-cases, higher security or others - several solutions might seem appropriate. Thus, a one-size-fits-all approach to authentication is definitely something not feasible, and so are point-solutions that create high maintenance cost while offering a limited number of application scenarios. Companies must create an elaborate and comprehensive Authentication Strategy, which is tightly aligned with its Security Strategy - which, in turn, needs to be based on the overall Company Strategy. This does not necessarily imply that the details of the Authentication Strategy need to be defined understood or created by executive management. But it certainly does imply that the general path chosen by creating such an Authentication Strategy and the details defined therein are clearly communicated to the executives - and the expected effects each technology may have should be explained as well.