SecureAuth Launches Single Sign-On Enterprise Grade Security for Mobile Applications

SecureAuth focuses on enterprise identity governance, which the company delivers through its SecureAuth IdP product suite. Hundreds of customers and over seven million users worldwide take advantage of IdP to ensure that users are properly authenticated to use their hardware and to have access to corporate networks, data and related assets.

The IdP platform provides companies with an extensible and scalable method of administering corporate identity governance for cloud-based applications, mobile devices, and networks. SecureAuth specializes in providing an all-in-one solution that gives IT departments a simplified way to manage and enforce access, authentication, approval and assertion based on existing security policies and end user security settings (or “entitlements” as SecureAuth puts it).

There is plenty of discussion going on in the mobile enterprise world right now on the issues surrounding both mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM), but one issue that hasn’t gotten a great deal of attention yet is the issue of user authentication across multiple mobile applications. The issue here isn’t one of simply authenticating a user across each mobile app being developed, but rather one of developing a capability that allows a single user sign-on (SSO) for a range of applications a user may be entitled to have access. SSO is critical for ensuring ease of use – though highly secure use - across multiple mobile applications.

Users in this case may not necessarily be only an enterprise’s workforce. It may also be an issue for business partners and business to business (B2B) customers (we aren’t referring to end user customers here such as a retailer may have). Each type of user – workforce, business partner, B2B customer) continues to significantly expand the use of mobile devices and mobile apps, and a new theme emerging within the enterprise is how exactly to provide easy and seamless use of these apps without a user constantly needing to re-authenticate across whatever collection of mobile applications they use.

It is with this the goal of solving this specific mobile authentication/re-authentication issue that SecureAuth today announced that it has now released its newest IdP component - SecureAuth IdP for Mobile. SecureAuth IdP for Mobile, which has been patented, secures enterprise-grade mobile applications by abstracting the authentication from one application, then passing the identity to other applications. It also provides two-factor authentication and SSO to native mobile, Web and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications to make logging onto mobile apps completely secure – but works specifically to ensure authentication is  fast across all mobile applications.

 “What’s revolutionary about SecureAuth IdP is that it verifies two-factor authentication based on policies that the enterprise dictates for any user that is granted access. Then it enables a user to obtain SSO into all other native apps and corporate web and SaaS applications,” notes Garret Grajek, chief technology officer at SecureAuth. “IdP for Mobile does not require client software, rooting of the device or intrusive and invasive mobile device management plug-ins. It keeps things entirely simple for the end user. The uniqueness of the SecureAuth solution is its rapid integration model that can be deployed across the entire enterprise within days.”

Some Technical Notes

SecureAuth IdP for Mobile delivers two-factor authentication and SSO for any native mobile application, with support for iOS, Android and other mobile operating systems. The IdP platform also supports developers working with .NET, J2EE, WebSphere and WebLogic applications. SecureAuth IdP for Mobile does this by:

• Bridging the mobile app to the enterprise directory: Using current directory stores – for example AD, LDAP, SQL -  it authenticates the user and delivers the identity to the mobile app, providing a definitive, repeatable method to tie an identity to these applications that allows re-deploying to other mobile apps, even when the other apps are created under different mobile platforms.
• Enabling flexible authentication, including two-factor: SecureAuth supports multiple methods for two-factor authentication including X.509, SMS, Telephony, KBA/KBQ, Yubikey, Static PIN and U.S. federal CAC/PIV cards. It conducts SecureAuth browser-based authentication from a native mobile browser and redirects to the SecureAuth for IdP for secure authentication.
• Logging the native mobile app authentication: After conducting the authentication and asserting the identity to the mobile app, SecureAuth IdP for Mobile Applications also logs the authentication. It logs the authentication to either a local SIEM server or to on-premise SecureAuth IdP logging and audit facilities. This enables the enterprise to know who authenticated, when, what resource and with what method, necessary to comply with regulatory standards and best practices policies.
• Providing SSO to other native mobile, web and SaaS applications: SecureAuth IdP for Mobile Applications provides SSO between enterprise mobile applications, and other mobile applications and browser-based applications. This enables the mobile user to automatically obtain SSO for all corporate applications once the initial SecureAuth IdP for Mobile registration is completed, saving time and resources for IT.

SecureAuth IdP for Mobile is available immediately. Enterprises would do well to scope out the issue of SSO, especially as it can be applied across a number of different environments that include cloud and SaaS environments. We like that SSO delivers an ease of use for the ultimate users of the mobile apps being secured. There is no greater threat to mobile app (and device) security than users being “too bothered” to deal with security. Ease of use is the ultimate answer here, and SecureAuth has developed an excellent means too delivering it.