Additions to Verizon’s Portfolio Designed to Help Stem Breaches Caused by Identity Theft and Fraud
February 16, 2011
SAN FRANCISO— Verizon on Wednesday (Feb. 16) announced an enhanced set of Enterprise Identity Management offerings that dramatically improves the way companies authenticate the identities of employees, partners and customers. This can significantly increase an enterprise’s ability to fend off data breaches caused by ID theft and fraud.
The enhanced suite of services delivers advanced protection and increased ease of use for enterprises grappling with how to best manage identity authentication. Verizon’s unique solutions set – which is delivered “as-a-service” via the cloud – can help enterprises control costs and significantly reduce the complexity and risk associated with identity management programs.
The financial costs of ID theft and fraud to businesses and government are staggering — estimated at billions of dollars annually. According to the 2010 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, nearly 90 percent of all breaches involve stolen or exploited identity credentials such as user names and passwords.
“For the most part, we have found that authentication methods used by enterprises today are either inadequate or difficult and expensive,” said Peter Tippett, Verizon vice president of security and industry solutions. “Until now, there’s been no single service that delivers a total-solution offering that includes the critical features — such as registering users, providing identity proofing and issuing identity credentials — required to truly meet the needs of today’s enterprise.”
Verizon currently manages 25 identity programs for countries around the globe, and in November the company announced a massive program with the U.S. medical community to issue identity credentials to 2.3 million health care professionals to help physicians manage online access and the secure exchange of confidential patient information.
Reaction from participants has been very positive, reported Tippett. Verizon expects the uptake for this key enabling service to increase significantly throughout 2011.
Next-Gen Cloud Solutions Help Reduce Complexity, Mitigate Risk and Control Costs for Enterprises
Verizon’s next-generation, cloud-based authentication solutions provide enterprises with many benefits, including better control of operating costs, reduced risk of ID fraud for individuals and organizations, and fast identity proofing as well as the ability for users to significantly reduce the number of credentials they manage.
The new offerings build on the company’s existing enterprise identity services and include:
- Identity Registration – Self-service portal to enable online identity proofing and support for automated online knowledge-based assessments.
- Credential Provisioning – Provides multiple assurance-level authentication to support a dozen authentication approaches, including one-time passwords sent to a mobile device, public key infrastructure, interactive voice response, hardware and software tokens as well as IP and geo-location mapping.
- Authentication –Risk-based transactional authentication via managed gateway authentication and managed federation services.
The company also announced the creation of an Identity Advisory Board, which will give Verizon’s enterprise clients the opportunity to work collaboratively in addressing their needs to better manage the identities of workers, increase transparency for transactions and strengthen data protection. The board plans to synthesize the input received to create new features and capabilities that meet the requirements of today’s distributed enterprise.
Verizon is a global leader in driving better business outcomes for mid-sized and large enterprises and government agencies. The company combines integrated communications and IT solutions, professional services expertise and its high-IQ global IP and mobility networks to enable businesses to securely access information, share content and communicate. Verizon is transforming itself around a cloud-based “everything-as-a-service” delivery model that will put the power of enterprise-class solutions within the reach of every business, where and when they’re needed. Find out more at www.verizonbusiness.com.
NOTE: Visit Verizon at RSA 2011 at booth #323 in the Moscone Center.
About Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, serving 94.1 million customers nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 194,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of $106.6 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.
| Media Contacts: |
| Janet Brumfield |
| +1 614 723 1060 |
| janet.brumfield@verizon.com |
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