Welcome Guest. | Log In | Register | Membership Benefits

Product Watch: Startup Rolls Out New Approach To User Authentication

WWPass offers single device that authenticates users to many systems; secure storage technology protects data by storing it in geographically distributed fragments

Feb 14, 2012 | 11:44 PM | 

By Tim Wilson
Dark Reading
Arguing that current methods of user authentication are either inconvenient or insecure, a start-up company later this month will roll out a new approach to authentication that could allow users to access many different secure technologies with a single device.

WWPass, a privately funded startup, today launched PassKey, a single, portable device that is capable of providing secure access to a variety of secure applications, services, and technologies.

“What we’re offering is a universal, single sign-on technology that has no single point of failure and isn't vulnerable at the initial point of authentication,” says Alan Taffel, chief marketing officer at WWPass.

Rather than requiring a separate password and/or token for each application, WWPass offers a secure hardware device called a PassKey that provides a single, anonymous method of accessing networks, applications, transaction systems, or even physically secure areas. Unlike current forms of authentication, the PassKey is associated with a person, rather than an application, the company says.

On the other side of an authentication session, WWPass-enabled applications, servers, or other systems are able to bilaterally authenticate with WWPass, the company states. WWPass then independently identifies to the user the website requesting credentials. Together with the elimination of username/passwords for website log-in, the new technology reduces users' susceptibility to phishing, it says.

Unlike other single sign-on technologies, WWPass maintains no database of user identities. Its geographically dispersed cloud storage service encrypts and fragments data, distributes those fragments around the globe, and stores them anonymously, the company says.

While the WWPass technology offers a potentially new approach to authentication, it can work only in applications or services that have been "WWPass-enabled." The startup is working to get major application providers to implement the technology, and has already enabled some open-source applications, including Apache Web servers, Magento e-commerce servers, WordPress CMS systems, and PKCS11-compliant secure applications such as Thunderbird email, Linux login, and OpenVPN.

Have a comment on this story? Please click "Comment" below. If you'd like to contact Dark Reading's editors directly, send us a message.



Currently we allow the following HTML tags in comments:

Single tags

These tags can be used alone and don't need an ending tag.

<br> Defines a single line break

<hr> Defines a horizontal line

Matching tags

These require an ending tag - e.g. <i>italic text</i>

<a> Defines an anchor

<b> Defines bold text

<big> Defines big text

<blockquote> Defines a long quotation

<caption> Defines a table caption

<cite> Defines a citation

<code> Defines computer code text

<em> Defines emphasized text

<fieldset> Defines a border around elements in a form

<h1> This is heading 1

<h2> This is heading 2

<h3> This is heading 3

<h4> This is heading 4

<h5> This is heading 5

<h6> This is heading 6

<i> Defines italic text

<p> Defines a paragraph

<pre> Defines preformatted text

<q> Defines a short quotation

<samp> Defines sample computer code text

<small> Defines small text

<span> Defines a section in a document

<s> Defines strikethrough text

<strike> Defines strikethrough text

<strong> Defines strong text

<sub> Defines subscripted text

<sup> Defines superscripted text

<u> Defines underlined text

Dark Reading encourages readers to engage in spirited, healthy debate, including taking us to task. However, Dark Reading moderates all comments posted to our site, and reserves the right to modify or remove any content that it determines to be derogatory, offensive, inflammatory, vulgar, irrelevant/off-topic, racist or obvious marketing/SPAM. Dark Reading further reserves the right to disable the profile of any commenter participating in said activities.

Disqus Tips To upload an avatar photo, first complete your Disqus profile. | View the list of supported HTML tags you can use to style comments. | Please read our commenting policy.
Subscribe to RSS



Authentication Reports

report What's Next for Certificate Technology
A recent rash of certificate authority breaches has left a bad taste in many people's mouths. There is no one reason for the breaches. The compromises were the result of a breakdown in people, processes and technology, but not necessarily the certificates themselves. We take a look at what?s wrong with certificate technology, what can be done to fix it, and what's down the road for certificates and CAs.

report Will Smartcards Live Up to Their Name?
Recent compromises of smartcard data have exacerbated concerns about the technology?s privacy, security and standards (or lack thereof). Yet the promise of smartcards is too compelling to ignore. New technologies and applications prompt us to take a fresh look.

report Get The Best Of Biometrics
As data volume and sensitivity grow, companies cannot rely on password- and token-based authentication. Biometrics can be used to provide strong access control, but you must weigh added complexity and costs against assurance that users are who they say they are.

Other reports from the Authentication Tech Center:




Featured Webcasts
Featured Whitepapers
Featured Reports