As banks ramp up their on-line and Internet services for corporate clients, secure verification of customers becomes ever more important – both at initial registration and then at every subsequent visit. This means issuing secure on-line identities which are then authenticated at every access and, sometimes, every transaction.

Thales e-Security's Advanced Authentication solutions strongly authenticate both users and transactions. Banks can be 100% certain who they are doing business with on-line. And they can check the integrity of every transaction, in real time, creating an indisputable record for future validation.

To deploy Advanced Authentication banks issue users with identity tokens holding a unique cryptographic key, usually as part of the initial registration process. Tokens used depend on the strength of security required, transaction processing needs, and budgets. They include smart cards, dynamic password tokens, password protected files and server based key files. Cryptographic keys may be either secret or public/private keys, depending on specific security needs.

In use, tokens and cryptographic keys are validated by a central authentication server at every access and/or every sensitive transaction, with the server keeping a strong, cryptographically protected audit trail of all on-line interactions as protection for disputed transactions.