NW_20010716_en_Funk Software’s Steel-Belted Radius AAA Server Adds Native Support for VASCO’s Digipass
Cambridge, MA, July 16, 2001 — Funk Software, developer of the market-leading Steel-Belted Radius family of RADIUS/AAA servers for remote and wireless LAN user authentication, authorization and accounting, announced today that Steel-Belted Radius has been integrated with the Digipass® family of two-factor authenticators, or tokens, from VASCO (Nasdaq & Nasdaq Europe:VDSI). The alliance expands Steel-Belted Radius’s already market-leading support for the most back-end authentication systems, and ensures maximum flexibility for users who wish to use Digipass exclusively or in combination with other authentication methods.
Users of Steel-Belted Radius can deploy VASCO Digipass hardware or software authenticators with any remote access technology, including dial-up, firewall, VPN or wholesale access, and with equipment from any vendor. A joint Steel-Belted Radius/VASCO solution allows a network manager to prevent unauthorized access to the network, while centralizing authentication across multiple technologies and equipment and eliminating the need to change remote access devices or restrict future purchases to a single vendor or technology.
“VASCO is one of the top authentication vendors worldwide, and adding native support for Digipass furthers our goal of giving our customers a choice of all leading methods for authenticating remote users,” said Eugene Chang, Vice President of Strategic Business Development at Funk Software. “This alliance is another important step in solidifying Steel-Belted Radius’s status as the authentication server of choice in the marketplace.”
VASCO’s Digipass utilizes patented dynamic password and digital signature technologies to help ensure positive identification of remote users and the integrity of data and transactions. The Digipass family ranges from VASCO’s own tokens, smart cards and Digipass software to a growing array of Digipass-enabled user platforms such as mobile phones and PDAs.
VASCO has also responded to the growing concerns of security and network administrators for easier authentication management at a low total cost of ownership. Each Digipass hardware authenticator offers a battery life of seven to 10 years, and organizations can choose to program or reprogram Digipass devices themselves, providing flexibility and control over their authentication environment. All Digipass platforms are fully interoperable, allowing organizations to migrate to or add other Digipass platforms, such as PDAs, without changing their existing IT infrastructure.
In addition to VASCO’s Digipass, Steel-Belted Radius integrates with five other major token systems, including RSA Security’s ACE/Server. Steel-Belted Radius also supports pass-through authentication to whatever password-based security system is already on the customer’s LAN, including Windows NT Domains and Hosts, NetWare NDS and Bindery, and Solaris UNIX Network Information Services (NIS).
Steel-Belted Radius also can authenticate any remote user based on information stored in SQL databases from Informix, Oracle and/or Sybase, support authentication based on TACACS+ and LDAP databases, and perform proxy RADIUS authentication against a RADIUS server at another site. Customers can combine authentication methods and configure Steel-Belted Radius to check the methods in any order desired.
“Steel-Belted Radius clearly leads the market for centrally managing remote access users and equipment in a manner that easily integrates into the customer’s existing network infrastructure, so making our Digipass strong authentication compatible with Funk Software’s product was a high priority for us,” said Jan Valcke, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing for VASCO. “This alliance will not only significantly raise our profile but also give Steel-Belted Radius customers a powerful new option for token-based authentication.”
The VASCO Digipass plug-in which enables compatibility with Steel-Belted Radius is free of charge and is available for download from the VASCO web site at www.vasco.com. A free 30-day trial copy of Steel-Belted Radius is available from the Funk Software web site at www.funk.com.
About VASCO
VASCO secures the enterprise from the mainframe to the Internet with infrastructure solutions that enable secure e-business and e-commerce, protect sensitive information, and safeguard the identity of users. The company's family of Digipass® and VACMAN® products offers end-to-end security through strong authentication and digital signature, true and secure Single Sign-On, access control, and web portal, LAN and enterprise security, while sharply reducing the time and effort required to deploy and manage security. VASCO's customers include hundreds of financial institutions, blue-chip corporations, and government agencies in more than 50 countries. More information is available at www.vasco.com.
About Funk Software
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Funk Software is the developer of the award-winning Steel-Belted Radius family of RADIUS authentication solutions. In use on thousands of enterprise and service provider networks worldwide, Steel-Belted Radius delivers a RADIUS solution on the scale required by the largest carriers and service providers, and scales easily to meet the centralized authentication needs of the enterprise. The Steel-Belted Radius family of RADIUS servers includes Steel-Belted Radius/Service Provider Edition, Steel-Belted Radius/Advanced Wireless Edition, Steel-Belted Radius Concurrency Server, Steel-Belted Radius Port Allocation System, and Steel-Belted Radius/Enterprise Edition. For more information, visit www.funk.com.