Spotlight on Kantara Member SecureKey

In this edition of Spotlight, we are pleased to tell readers more about SecureKey, their unique role in IdM, and why they became Members of Kantara Initiative.

1. Why was your service/product created, and how is it providing real-world value today?
SecureKey was founded to make strong authentication easy for a wide range of online, mobile, and in-person identity and authentication applications. Traditionally, financial services, government, healthcare, converged commerce, and enterprises have had to employ dedicated, costly authentication infrastructures to enable user authentication for online services. As a result, these organizations tended to limit providing high-value online services. Today, users of online services are burdened with the task of remembering usernames and passwords for every online service that they use. This is a hassle because it is too difficult to remember distinct credentials for every service, so many people use the same username and password across multiple sites. This increases security and privacy risks, and is not robust enough to protect against online attacks. With the proliferation of mobile devices and cloud services, it was clear that a new authentication model was needed.
Today, our cloud-based trusted identity networks are making it easy for private- and public-sector organizations to confidently extend high-value services to millions of consumers and citizens. Our SecureKey Concierge credential broker service is being used by the Government of Canada to allow Canadians to use their familiar, trusted bank authentication credentials to access online services.
In order to reduce fraud risk and help ensure safer, more convenient online payment transactions
MasterCard® integrated our briidge.net™ DNA security software and briidge.net Connect authentication service to offer an additional level of hardware-based security. In working with MasterCard® and Intel® Identity Protection Technology (Intel® IPT), MasterPass™, the new digital commerce platform can be used safely and conveniently across a wide range of devices. Thus allowing merchants to confidently enable more online services with MasterPass™.
And just recently, SecureKey was awarded a contract by the United States Postal Service to provide the cloud-based authentication infrastructure for the U.S. government’s new Federal Cloud Credential Exchange. The FCCX service is designed to enable individuals to securely access online services, such as health benefits, student loan information, and retirement benefit information, at multiple federal agencies without having to use a different password or other digital identification for each service.
2. Where is SecureKey envisioned to be in the next 5-10 years?
Our goal is to establish SecureKey services as the de facto standard for online authentication within the next five years. By creating a new model for authentication based on our innovative technology, we are the first to make it easy for online service providers and users alike to access valuable online services and content safely and conveniently. Of course, we expect that technology innovation will continue to evolve and over the next 5-10 years as well and that we will be solving a wide range of problems associated with identification and the world’s movement to online, mobiles services.
3. Why did SecureKey join Kantara Initiative?
We joined the Kantara Initiative to collaborate with customers and partners in the identity and authentication market space. Our mission is to improve how consumers and citizens access online services through innovation, privacy, community building and excellence in service delivery across a variety of markets and applications. The emphasis on open standards, interoperability, and development best practices, as well as having common goals with other participants, made this initiative a “must-join” for us. Kantara is where shared projects come to life.
4. Anything else we should know about SecureKey, the service/product, or even your own experiences?
We are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for this market. As revolutionary as eCommerce was nearly a decade ago, the advent of ubiquitous mobility is dramatically changing everything from data storage to content delivery to security and authentication. As we are increasingly challenged to maintain users’ privacy while safely improving online convenience, we view authentication as pivotal. Our briidge.net solutions form the technology foundation of our strategy, and we are pleased to be able to share our experiences with the Kantara Initiative community going forward.