While the popularity of remote working is rising, organizations are struggling to maintain a consistent digital security to protect their sensitive data in transit. Ensurity has selected WISeKey’s certified cybersecurity solutions to secure digital credentials of geographically distributed workforces.
Geneva, Switzerland – Hyderabad, India – October 8, 2020: WISeKey International Holding Ltd. (“WISeKey”) (SIX: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY), a leading global cybersecurity and IoT company, announced today that Ensurity Technologies (“Ensurity”), a Hyderabad, India-based cybersecurity company and a member of Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), has selected WISeKey’s Common Criteria certified secure microprocessors to design its ThinC-AUTH FIDO2 certified biometric key to access Microsoft® Windows® and Azure® AD.
For more than two decades, WISeKey has been one of the very few recognized providers of hardware and software, first-in-class digital security solutions for cybercrime protection, people and object identification and authentication. WISeKey has designed secure chips, which are widely used in highly sensitive applications such as banking, national ID and PayTV. Most of these chips are designed for and certified with Common Criteria EAL5+, one of the highest government grade security certifications.
Ensurity has been partnering with Microsoft through the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), an elite group of cybersecurity technology companies, to support the FIDO2 passwordless initiative and offer a secure login to Microsoft Windows and Azure Active Directory (AD), a solution to remotely access corporate data and applications. ThinC-AUTH is a FIDO2 certified and Microsoft compatible USB based security key featuring a fingerprint touch sensor. The key is designed around WISeKey’s secure chip with a government grade digital security certification to guarantee that credentials, cryptography methods and user’s fingerprints are stored in a safe place.
“Living in a digital world allows us to access many online new services in the blink of an eye, which is a significant progress,” stated Carlos Moreira, Founder and CEO of WISeKey. “In particular, remote work often leads to the comfort of employees. Then, cybersecurity becomes a must to protect corporate assets. The combination of our unique expertise in designing secure chips with Ensurity’s identity platform to power the new distributed Zero Trust digital economy generated a sound solution for decentralized organizations.”
“Microsoft’s computer environment is predominant in most organizations. Ensurity, is an established FIDO2 solution provider working with Microsoft since they adopted this standard to reinforce their Windows and Azure AD platforms security with a passwordless approach,” said Amit Mathur, COO of Ensurity. “Building our ThinC-AUTH biometric key on WISeKey’s certified cybersecurity was a natural choice when we decided to further enhance the protection of our customer’s credentials and private information.”
A recent research delving into passwords used in our day-to-day digital life found that an alarming 78% of respondents use an insecure method to help remember their password, with 34% admitting to using the same password for multiple accounts. Poor password hygiene presents a significant security risk for organizations. According to the 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 80% of hacking-related breaches involve compromised or weak credentials, while 29% of all breaches involved the use of stolen credentials. The consequences of a breach can be catastrophic, with the average cost of a stolen record $148, and the total cost incurred from a data breach averaging at $3.86m – far from small numbers. Despite this, 65% of organizations do not even check employee credentials against common password lists.
FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) consortium (https://fidoalliance.org/) is an international alliance working towards an increased secure access to online services and the replacement of password based solutions. This standard is already endorsed by global leaders in the World Wide Web including Google, Amazon, Facebook, Alibaba, Microsoft, WordPress, etc. FIDO2 is an evolution of this standard with an increased security.
