Best Practices for Authenticating Mobile Workers and Securing Data Access

Overview

In an environment where business and government databases store ever-increasing amounts of sensitive and confidential data - and where a growing number of employees need to access that data remotely - password security alone is insufficient to ensure user authentication. Many organizations are turning to two-factor authentication, which requires two measures for users to verify their identities and access data. Typically, two-factor authentication involves "something one have," such as a token, and "Something one know," such as a PIN or password. Hardware tokens provide a unique passcode each time a user logs in to the system. Tokens are portable, easy to use, relatively inexpensive, and compatible with virtually every type of computer.