Security in a digital age has never been more important.  With the rise of interconnected networks, our computers are linked to the world and not merely to those computers in our own country even.  Security patching is a must and for those who don’t, they face the wrath of hackers and thieves.  We all know the lock and key concept – but now we must take this to the digital age.  Game companies such as Blizzard as well as financial institutions including PayPal have already implemented a form multifactor authentication that involves not only passwords (something you know) but also a token (something you have) which generates a random number based on time and a specific algorithm.  This is probably the one of the most effective means of authentication as even if you have a password, you still need the physical/biometric key.  If you have only the key, that still will do you no good unless you have the password.  With that, let’s take this security method to the masses.  PhoneFactor is one such company. 

I have used Phone Factor free for a while now in conjunction with my LogMeIn account.  Under the old method, I would enter my user name and password to get into the LogMeIn dashboard which allows me to select a computer to remote control.  After selecting the computer that I want to control, I’ll enter the computer password.  Normally, this is where authentication ends and I get remote control of my computer.  Now, however, with Phone Factor, after entering the proper password, Phone Factor will phone me in which I’ll need to respond by pressing the keypad of my cell phone.  After this, now I get access to my computer.  The free version of Phone Factor only allows a single “#” to be pressed to verify the token.  In the pay version, a numeric pin can be added to provide yet additional layer of protection.   The paid version of PhoneFactor allows not only phone calls but also text message and voiceprint authentication.  PhoneFactor is free for LogMeIn users, and offers many more options for enterprise customers as well as developers.   With the paid version, you’ll be able to add multifactor authentication to VPNs, RADIUS, Outlook Web Access, Citrix, and more.  On the development end, SDKs are available for ASP.NET C#, ASP.NET VB, Java, Perl, Ruby, and PHP which covers pretty much all of the mainstream programming languages.  I believe PhoneFactor is on the right track and is truly an innovative technology that’s sure to grow in the days ahead.

Try out a demo of PhoneFactor today or sign up for the free LogMeIn security upgrade.

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