Cryptomathic: driving customer authenticati

Identity and access management technology is often used to control what systems and access rights users have within and between organizations. However, perhaps the most contentious area where identity management has as yet to really make its presence felt, but has the potential to make a real difference, is in the customer-facing areas of online trading and financial service. Take, for example, the banking sector. This industry saw the advantages of customer self-service at an early stage, but has been held back from converting large numbers of customers to the benefits of online account usage due to the threat of identity theft via phishing, pharming, and spyware scams. In the UK there has, thus far, been a marked reluctance to invest in secure online customer access controls, probably because financial institutions were reluctant to bear the costs, and knew customers could not be forced into paying for this type of additional protection. Fortunately that mindset is about to change.