FireID Launches Mobile Two-Factor Authentication Platform For Online And Mobile Banking

Stellenbosch, South Africa—March 16, 2010—FireID, Inc., a leading provider of world-class security applications for mobile authentication, today announced the FireID Authentication Platform for Banks.

The most comprehensive authentication solution for the banking industry, the FireID Authentication Platform for Banks provides transaction verification, authentication for mobile and online banking, and internal VPN access for bank use. Using something the end-user already has, a mobile phone, FireID protects financial transactions against sophisticated threats " including man-in-the-browser attacks " and ensures that only legitimate payments are made.

According to a recent study conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, 99 million U.S. adults will conduct mobile banking transactions by 2014. Further, Javelin's research shows that mobile authentication can actually help mitigate the risk of fraud across all banking channels, from ATM to branch. Collectively, new account and existing account identity fraud adds up to $48 billion, with an average per-victim cost of nearly $550.

"Having just returned from the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, we've confirmed that the U.S. is closely following the trend in South America and EMEA, where mobile banking is a foregone conclusion," said Jenny Dugmore, CEO of FireID. "FireID's Authentication provides banks and their users with an efficient, convenient solution that significantly reduces the risks involved with Internet financial transactions and accessing online resources. We look forward to helping banks safeguard their customers' sensitive financial transactions so they can confidently deploy mobile and online services for competitive differentiation in the marketplace."

FireID provides banking transactions through groundbreaking authentication solutions that allow users to login securely and conveniently to almost anything that requires personal authentication, without the need to remember passwords. The FireID Platform eliminates the need for hardware tokens by generating secure one-time passwords (OTP) on users' mobile phones, with no network connectivity required, to provide strong security for sensitive financial transactions.

The OATH-compliant FireID Platform allows for easy integration with other OATH authentication engines, while also offering its own powerful authentication engine. It combines multiple mobile two-factor authentication solutions that can be used by banks either individually or together, and transparently appear as one application on the user's phone that can be easily customized to reflect bank-selected branding.

Through its new Authentication Platform for Banks, FireID uniquely and elegantly addresses the authentication issues confronting banks, including:

Transaction verification—secures payments and transactions against sophisticated attack methods for thwarting two-factor authentication, including man-in-the-browser attacks. In this kind of attack, a hacker manipulates a legitimately authenticated end-user's browser to create fake banking transactions. The FireID application generates a unique verification code for each transaction that is verified by the server for authenticity. If an attacker attempts to change any details, the verification code is rendered invalid and the server will reject the transaction.

Mobile banking authentication—generates an OTP and automatically authenticates the user into a secure site via the phone's web browser, without the need to switch between applications.

Online banking strong authentication—generates an OTP on the user's mobile phone, out-of-band (with no network connectivity required), when online banking login is required.

Bank VPN Access Authentication—protects against unauthorized access into the bank's corporate network and facilitates access-related compliance with banking industry regulations. As soon as the remote user logs in, the one-time password expires and cannot be used again.

For additional details about the FireID Authentication Platform for Banks, please visit: http://www.fireid.com/products/

About FireID

FireID is a leading provider of mobile two-factor authentication. Founded in 2006, FireID is located in Stellenbosch, South Africa and has offices in the USA and UK with a broad international network of distributors and resellers. With increased transaction fraud and identity theft, strong authentication has become an essential component for any online or mobile application. FireID's world-class authentication solutions meet the growing authentication needs of corporations, government agencies and end-users who require highly secure and convenient online access to password protected accounts. For more information, visit http://www.fireid.com.

David McKee

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