Comodo Two Factor Authentication Emerging as a Disruptive Technology to Address FFIEC Requirements

Financial Institutions Are Displacing Ineffective and Hard to Implement First Generation Solutions Such as Matrix Cards, Fraud Analysis, Tokens or Challenge Response Models with Newer, Highly Flexible Second-Generation Digital Certificate Solutions.

Jersey City, NJ (May 2nd, 2007) – Comodo, a global Certification Authority and leading provider of Identity and Trust Assurance Management solutions, announced today that Comodo TF continues to receive widespread adoption by financial institutions as a disruptive technology solution changing the future of the authentication industry. Comodo meets the criteria presented in the three-point Christensen Disruptive Technology test – 1) being inexpensive, 2) technologically simple and 3) a technology that doesn’t require replacement of existing systems. This PKI-based authentication solution provides groundbreaking improvements to solve the FFIEC-preferred two factor authentication solution easily for financial institutions without costly deployment or customer adoption challenges.

The challenge for many mid-sized institutions is to deploy a compliant, secure, yet customer-friendly authentication solution that can accommodate a wide variety of networking architectures from back-office infrastructure to web-hosting service providers. The solutions that service providers typically offer their customers relied on first generation technologies which could be unreliable (e.g. cookies), difficult for customers to use (e.g. matrix cards) and/ or expensive to deploy (e.g. tokens). Therefore, as institutions understand the value of a seamless digital certificate solution, many financial institutions and service providers are adopting Comodo TF to take advantage of the security and configurability of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) solution.

Comodo TF adoption is being driven by its user-friendly interface, ease of deployment, ease of customer adoption and inexpensive cost model. This presents a significant improvement in authentication performance substantially altering the competitive landscape. Comodo TF delivers on key performance milestones:

Continuous, secure and authenticated online financial interactions through a PKI- based solution well-recognized for high performance and security. This solution provides a mutual authentication solution for any regulatory-intensive industry such as healthcare, insurance, education and government agencies
Bringing the power of the PKI platform to a regulatory intensive business community, creating a low-cost and highly flexible solution that scales effortlessly
Advances in authentication technology that could extend the institutions’ ability to provide additional services and features
Quantum leap in customer adoption since it doesn’t require customers to alter their banking behavior once their Digital-ID has been created. Users can simply continue to use their existing usernames and passwords

“Working with our partners in the financial sectors, Comodo has been creating a new level of performance and ease of deployment in authentication that is unmatched by more traditional solutions,” says Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO and Chief Security Architect of Comodo. “As customers begin to deploy authentication solutions, customers and service providers are taking a new look at Comodo’s PKI approach. Comodo TF, as a second generation solution, presents measurable advantages with an increased ROI over existing approaches.”

Compared to other authentication approaches, Comodo TF delivers a strong, flexible approach that provides a scalable foundation for future possible regulatory requirements while delivering measurable ROI today:

The only PKI-based two-factor solution from a CA that delivers digital certificates – one of the strongest forms of authentication available for online security.
The most cost-effective authentication solution on the market due to Comodo’s mature PKI infrastructure.
Can be deployed in days and is highly flexible
Requires virtually no bank side integration
A platform that will support future authentication requirements

Comodo TF Solution Description:

FFIEC recommendations suggest that financial institutions use two factor authentication solutions because single factor authentication is not strong enough and too easy for fraudsters to attack. Comodo TF delivers Client Digital Certificates to a user’s PC, thus turning the PC into a “smart token” and allowing the bank to authenticate the user. By transforming the PC into a “what you have” factor” in addition to the “what you know” user name/ password factor creates a fully compliant two-factor solution. This approach is a significant improvement over other weaker, “multi layered” solutions such as the challenge/ response solutions of matrix cards. Digital Client certificates are an easy to deploy and secure solution that uses a proprietary certificate management tool for easy certificate issuance, management and revocation. Digital Client Certificate can be stored directly on a user’s PC or, for portability, they can be stored on smart cards or tokens for mobile applications.

The most recent win for Comodo Two Factor is Canandaigua National Bank and Trust, a large community bank with over $1 billion in assets. For more information, please visit https://enterprise.comodo.com/

About Comodo

The Comodo companies provide the infrastructure that is essential in enabling e-merchants, other Internet-connected companies, software companies, and individual consumers to interact and conduct business via the Internet safely and securely. The Comodo companies offer PKI SSL, Code Signing, Content Verification and Email Certificate; award winning PC Security software; Vulnerability Scanning services for PCI Compliance; secure e-mail and fax services.

Continual innovation, a core competence in PKI, and a commitment to reversing the growth of Internet-crime distinguish the Comodo companies as vital players in the Internet’s ongoing development. Comodo secures and authenticates online transactions and communications for over 200,000 business customers and 3,000,000 users of our desktop security products.

For additional information on Comodo – Creating Trust Online® visit Comodo.com

For more information, reporters and analysts may contact:

Comodo
Email: media-relations@comodo.com
Office: +1 (888) 266-6361