SecureAuth Delivers Native WS-Federation Support and Two-Factor Authentication for SharePoint

About a month ago SecureAuth released an important single sign-on (SSO) addition to its SecureAuth idP product suite – well worth reading about. Today the company followed that product enhancement with a new capability that specifically targets Microsoft SharePoint environments. To do so, SecureAuth has added WS-Federation capability to SecureAuth idP. WS-Federation is an Identity Federation specification – which was developed by BEA Systems, BMC Software, CA, IBM, Layer 7 Technologies, Microsoft, Novell, Ping Identity, and VeriSign. WS-Federation is a part of the larger Web Services Security framework and defines the mechanisms for allowing disparate or unrelated security realms to broker information on identities, identity attributes and authentication.

SecureAuth IdP integrates two-factor authentication and WS-Federation support, which allows enterprises to offer SharePoint files and apps to mobile users, partners, suppliers and customers that do not use the enterprise’s own domain. This capability entirely frees SharePoint administrators, integrators and resellers from needing to authenticate users physically on an enterprise domain or having to obtain enterprise domain access through potentially cumbersome VPN connections or other thick clients. The new capability is available immediately to both new and existing customers.

Adding WS-Federation support to SecureAuth IdP significantly simplifies integration and offers flexibility for SharePoint users. In addition, WS-Federation now allows enterprises to simply deploy SharePoint servers wherever or however they want. The new product enhancement also offers developers a secure and more robust method of authentication than either NT LAN Manager or Kerberos can deliver.

SecureAuth IdP support for SharePoint now enables enterprises to securely provide access to their aggregated resources - whether users are on-premise or remote. For users it offers simplified use whether they are mobile or at their desktops. With SecureAuth IdP support for WS-Federation, enterprises can now:

• Locate enterprise data stores and servers anywhere, including with cloud identity management services that host a given data store.
• Abstract authentication workflows with two-factor authentication to offer stronger security than would otherwise be available.
• Improve the user interface for integrators or installation firms, and make it much easier for end-users to use.
• Enforce authorization based on pre-existing groups established by an enterprise’s access management policies.

Finally, the fact that enterprises gain more robust authentication capabilities than were previously available is also worth a few more words The SecureAuth IdP for SharePoint enhancement also enables enterprises to meet all authentication requirements regardless of market sector. SecureAuth IdP two-factor authentication supports X.509v3 certificates, SMS, telephony, KBA/KBQ, static PIN, U.S. Federal CAC/PIV, and help desk. Additionally, it enables organizations to meet a number of authentication guidelines such as PCI DSS, NCUA, HIPAA/HITECH, CJIS, FFIEC, among others. Some of these are especially critical for verticals such as healthcare, where local, state and federally mandated regulatory compliance must be met.