Thales UK today announced that it has entered into a technology partnership with Australian-based e-security firm, Salt Group. Under the terms of the agreement, Thales UK and Salt Group will jointly promote mobile authentication solutions using SafeSign, Thales’ end-to-end authentication platform, and Salt Group Mobile Token authentication technology. This will enable organisations to offer convenient and cost-effective mobile phone based authentication capabilities to their customers.
Thales’ SafeSign provides customers with a single, central authentication platform with the ability to authenticate users with different security and authentication requirements, ensuring that the most appropriate level of security is applied to transactions. SafeSign can authenticate users and transactions regardless of channel and for a range of identity solutions, including PKI certificates, smart cards, USB tokens, handheld tokens and biometrics.
An integral part of Salt Group’s overall security offering, SafeSign can now authenticate transactions using any Salt Group Mobile Token, further increasing the solution’s flexibility and offering customers a cost-effective route to comprehensive online security and fraud reduction. Thales’ agreement with Salt Group means that companies can offer a mix of mobile phone based authentication mechanisms to their customers such as SMS authentication tokens, MCode - standalone cryptographically based one time password and challenge response tokens, or Salt Group’s unique hybrid transaction authentication token, MSign.
“As a SafeSign reseller, we understand the importance of a single, highly trusted point of authentication within an enterprise and SafeSign’s unique position in addressing this need,” said Ross Oakley, Salt Group’s CEO. “From the outset, we developed our Mobile Token solutions to be closely integrated with SafeSign and to leverage Thales’ investment in this core infrastructure. We believe strongly that the ubiquity of mobile phones, together with our focus on low cost mobile token deployment, ease of integration into business applications and identity management systems, and simple end user operations provide SafeSign users a competitive, high assurance alternative, or complementary offering, to their existing user authentication mechanisms.”
Salt Mobile Tokens have been designed and developed to break the nexus between high authentication assurance and token cost, and provide identity and transaction authentication assurance levels equivalent to purpose built authentication devices with a total cost of ownership more aligned to traditional single factor solutions. Salt’s PIN protected Mobile Tokens have been designed for simple “over the air” high assurance provisioning and intuitive end user operation ensuring low help desk loads and near zero physical involvement in the fully integrated provisioning process.
James Kilazoglou, Managing Director of Thales e-Security, added: “The issue of identity management and authentication is becoming increasingly important, particularly as online transactions become ever more popular. Organisations such as banks, governments, pharmaceuticals and healthcare companies are faced with an array of different security risks. Thales’ support of Salt Group Mobile Tokens shows our commitment to providing the widest range of transaction and identity management security solutions, and adds a significant capability to SafeSign’s already comprehensive authentication token support.”
About Thales
Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace, security and services markets worldwide. The Group employs 60,000 people throughout the world and generated revenues of 10.3 billion euros in 2004. Thales UK employs 10,000 people and generated revenues of £1.1 billion in 2004.
Operating in three main markets covering e-security, card payment and network security, Thales’ e-Security activities address the business, government and finance industries’ need for cryptographic security products and solutions. Over half of the world’s banks, together with the majority of the busiest exchanges, currently use Thales technology. For more than 20 years the company has been at the forefront of security and payment technology, co-operating and contributing to set the industry standards used for financial transactions and e-commerce globally. Thales e-Security activities offer a wide range of security solutions to protect Government and Defence critical information infrastructures, thereby positioning the company as a leading worldwide supplier of certified network security products.
About SafeSign
SafeSign is the first middle office system to offer a strategic approach to identity management and transaction authentication that in turn removes complexity through the use of a single platform between the front and back office. Transactions from multiple trust schemes can be easily integrated and secured, regardless of format or whether from third parties, enabling current investments to be exploited. All transactions, whatever their source, can be authenticated on the single SafeSign platform that is seamlessly integrated with front and back office systems.
About Salt Group
Salt Group is an Australian technology company providing e-security products and solutions to the finance, government and telecommunications sectors. Salt Group’s mobile product development includes user and transaction authentication technologies and mobile payment authorization services. For more details: www.saltgroup.com.au
Contacts
Sarah Milligan
Thales
+44 (0) 1844 204181
sarah.milligan@thales-esecurity.com
Sharon Brennan
Hotwire PR
+44 (0) 20 7608 4628
sharon.brennan@hotwirepr.com
