Entersekt user authentication technology eliminates the need for hardware and software tokens

Despite the adoption of multi-factor authentication methods, banks are still struggling to fight phishing and man-in-the-browser attacks. To give banks a simple-to-use, more secure method of confirming online banking users’ identities, Atlanta-based Entersekt has launched Transakt, a mobile-based application used to identify online banking customers’ identities and to accept or reject transactions outside of the browser.

Says Christiaan Brand, CTO of Entersekt: “Our technology offers superior online banking security and non-repudiation. It eliminates costly, cumbersome and compromised one-time password (OTP) systems and makes hardware and software tokens obsolete. With existing systems, multiple parties know your access credentials, but with Entersekt’s Transakt, the bank can validate the user, but not replicate the user identity.”

Entersekt’s one-of-a-kind approach harnesses the power of electronic certificate technology with the convenience of mobile phones to provide financial institutions and their customers with full protection from fraud in the online and card-not-present space. Certificates are deployed using Entersekt’s mobile application, Transakt, available for hundreds of different mobile platforms, be it iOS, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone or any other Java platforms.

Transakt verifies both the bank and the mobile device, eliminating the need for expensive hardware tokens or cumbersome one-time passwords. The bank retains full control over registering users, and all communication is encrypted end-to-end and cannot be intercepted by outside parties.

“In the midst of an international epidemic of phishing attacks on banks, every time a consumer logs information into their bank’s Web site, they are potentially exposing sensitive and valuable information to any and every watching cyber criminal,” says Francois van Schoor, president of Entersekt. “With Transakt, all communication between the bank and the Transakt mobile application is encrypted and authenticated outside of the browser, protecting consumers from fraudulent activities.

“Financial institutions look to strengthen the trust they share with their customers, and Transakt enables organisations to foster these relationships by creating a secure barrier between their customers and any fraudulent activity,” Van Schoor said.

Mike Brown, CEO of prominent South African bank, Nedbank, adds: “Since our deployment of this technology some six months ago, and with over six million sessions under our belt, there has not been one single case of a phishing attack on our networks.”