Microsoft beefs up cloud login security in PhoneFactor gobble
Is that a token in your pocket or are you pleased to see us?
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Microsoft has bought PhoneFactor, the maker of software that allows punters to securely identify themselves to computer systems using their mobiles. Terms of the deal, announced yesterday, were undisclosed.
The snapped-up biz offers phone-based authentication as an alternative to physical security tokens that can, for instance, be plugged into a PC to grant remote access to a corporate network.
PhoneFactor instead offers tokens stored by software on phones or out-of-band text message codes that can be entered into a website or other system. The technology already works with many Microsoft products and services, including Outlook Web Access and Internet Information Services, as well as interoperating with Active Directory.
Redmond said the deal to acquire PhoneFactor will allow it to "bring effective and easy-to-use multi-factor authentication to our cloud services and on-premises applications".
Timothy Sutton, PhoneFactor chief exec, has blogged about the gobble, and there's an FAQ on the agreement here. ®
