Symplified Integrates With Symantec VIP To Extend Strong Authentication To Cloud And Mobile Apps

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, RSA Conference 2012, Feb. 28, 2012 - Symplified', the Cloud Identity Company, today announced that its cloud and identity and access management (IAM) service now supports the Symantec Validation and ID Protection (VIP) Service for strong authentication. Symplified is reselling Symantec VIP as a seamlessly integrated component within the Symplified service to provide one stop shopping for high-trust and sensitive applications that require more robust security than username and password logins. Symantec VIP is a new option within Symplified's adaptive authentication capability which can intelligently challenge users for stronger types of identity verification when they request access to an application from devices or networks that could pose a security risk.

"BYOT [Bring-your-own-token] is Forrester's term for the various methods (sometimes called 'tokenless') that leverage the devices, applications, and communications channels users already have. You can get a surprising amount of risk mitigation value from this lightweight approach, in which you can treat provisioning not as an expensive snail-mail package, but as a mere self-registration exercise," wrote Eve Maler, principal analyst for Forrester Research .

Symplified Gateway: Adaptive Authentication for BYOD

To secure applications in BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and mobile environments, Symplified uses context-aware, adaptive technology that can enforce step-up authentication based on access control policies. For example, if a user requests access to an application from an unmanaged device on an unmanaged network like an iPad over a Wi-Fi network, Symplified can challenge them for a stronger authentication mechanism than a username and password. At runtime, users can be authenticated and profiled using multiple user repositories including Active Directory, LDAP and even Salesforce, Google and Workday to create a composite view of their identity.

In addition to Symantec VIP, Symplified also offers strong authentication options from RSA SecurID, CryptoCard and others within an extensible authentication framework. Symplified's unique proxy gateway architecture enables customers to activate these integrated strong authentication options on an application-by-application and user-by-user basis. Since Symantec VIP implements Forrester's bring-your-own-token model, the Symplified service enables administrators to assign a strong authentication challenge per application without making any hardware investments. Symplified can apply strong authentication to on premises and cloud apps without modifying their code, and makes it possible to extend this capability to apps that were not designed to support it.

Self-Service Provisioning

To eliminate help desk calls, Symplified provides a self-service portal for Symantec VIP provisioning. When an un-provisioned user attempts to access an application that requires strong authentication, they are automatically redirected to the self-service portal. Here they are challenged for a secondary authentication credential. If the user provides a valid credential, they are then prompted to choose their preferred Symantec VIP credential type (computer, VIP hardware credential, or SMS/voice). Symplified also provides a self-service function for requesting a temporary security code in the event that a user misplaces their token.

"Symplified's vision is to provide a unified cloud identity and access management platform that addresses the convergence of access control, authentication, auditing, data protection and mobile computing. Our goal is to reduce the cost and complexity for customers, and we doing just that for more than 3.8 million licensed users," said Eric Olden, CEO and founder of Symplified.

"By unifying the Symantec VIP strong authentication service with the Symplified proxy gateway we streamline management and deployment with a pre-integrated solution," he added.

"This all-in-one approach allows customers to turn Symantec VIP on or off as needed within the Symplified service, and to provide users with a seamless and consistent self-service experience," he concluded.

Pricing and Availability

The Symplified service with Symantec VIP is currently available from Symplified and its business partners worldwide.

About Symplified | The Cloud Identity Company

Symplified provides seamless identity and access management across cloud, web and mobile apps used by employees, partners and customers. The company protects more than 3.8 million identities for customers in the healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, and telecommunications industries. The Symplified service and its Trust Fabric' App Store unifies access management, federated single sign-on, auditing and user management across any access device. Symplified can be delivered securely either on-premises or across its unique Cloud Fabric' deployment platform via the Symplified Trust Cloud' which is hosted on the global, massively scalable Amazon Web Services infrastructure. The Symplified ONE offering scales from workgroups of 50 to the Fortune 500 offering the simplest, most rapid to deploy cloud IAM offering in the market. The company has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal, CRN, Network World, the RSA conference, SINET 16 and others for its innovations. Symplified's management team created web access management market originator Securant, and the ClearTrust product, which was acquired by RSA Security. The company has received financing from leading venture capital firms Allegis Capital, Granite Ventures, Ignition Partners and Quest Software. Symplified is headquartered in Boulder, Colo. Visit us on the web at www.symplified.com.