10 December 2007
Reseller perceptions that authentication is a complex and expensive enterprise sell are going to be challenged, with the technology increasingly being aimed at the SME arena.
A handful of players operate in the market, including RSA and Vasco, with the traditional focus on the enterprise and financial sectors.
Jason Hart, senior vice-president for Europe at Cryptocard, said the technology had become more attractive to mid-size and smaller companies because there was a need for security at every level.
"People do not concentrate enough on passwords and those passwords can be hacked very easily. Some people are becoming reluctant to do things on the internet because of that," he said.
Earlier this year security experts downplayed fears that identity theft and hacking could undermine the move by users to embrace more web services (MicroScope 30 April).
Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of Wick Hill, which has just been appointed as Cryptocard’s distributor, said that according to government research, there were large numbers of firms with no authentication.
"We expect to get a base of SMEs and this can be sold as a product that can cover some of the gaps in their existing security. Sales into that niche will double and treble [in the next couple of years]," he said.
He added that recent events with the HMRC lost data disks had undermined the importance of encryption and authentication ensuring that only the right people could get access to the right data.
