Logins are the worst, but we use them because they protect our valuable information from crooks, hackers and the like... or so we think. As it turns out, many of us reuse passwords or simplify them so much (bosco, p@ssw0rd, your pet's name, etc.) they become essentially worthless. Worse still, even our best passwords have been hacked via sophisticated schemes and technologies, which continue to evolve at the same pace of our best security features. According to Andrew, Founder of TransAuth, over 150 million accounts were affected by password theft in 2013 alone.
Multi-factor security is fast becoming the go-to solution for protecting our computers and other online accounts. It sounds confusing, but you're already using it every time you take cash out of an ATM. In that scenario your card, stored in your pocket, is combined with a PIN, stored in your brain (hopefully), to create a secure connection to your account. That same approach can (and is) be applied to other digital accounts.
TransAuth is one provider working on this simple, but secure authentication solution. Here, again, is Andrew to help us understand the problem, and his potential solution:
Reed: Andrew, tell us more about where TransAuth came from.
Andrew: I’ve been working in the information security industry for over 10 years as an employee, consultant and trusted advisor for many different organizations, from SMB to Fortune 50 corporations.
I overheard numerous clients complaining about the complexity, efficiency, cost and hassle of existing Multi-Factor Authentication solutions, but I couldn’t find anything better on the market. Then, I got an idea one day while looking at an open source application that locks your workstation when you walk away: I want to use the same idea to grant access to workstations and software! The idea eventually evolved into a comprehensive, low-friction solution designed to help individuals and organizations protect identities, data and resources.
Reed: Another solution born from a pain-point; nice! So where are you at?
Andrew: We recently released version 19 of our agent, which is our test version while in our private beta. Also, our primary architect and developer recently became our first co-founder, and we're preparing for our public beta.
Reed: Great! Where do you see TransAuth in one year?
Andrew: We expect to have our logo laser-etched in the moon...kidding. Our backup plan is to have a growing production installation base of at least 50 organizations, an aggressive development and feature-release schedule, several dedicated full-time resources and at least one licensing deal in place with an established provider in the identity and access management space.
Reed: That's doable. Good luck!
Want better security? Come to Beta.MN's 1.0 event and support Andrew in his efforts to make our accounts more secure; a simple "keep up the good work" will do. Tickets, here.