Goldkey Security Corporation today announced that its PIV Smart Card Token has become the token of choice among a growing number of SMEs and Fortune 500 companies for securing Active Directory deployments with certificate-based multi-factor authentication. This solution ought to far surpass the security of password-only authentication by requiring users to authenticate with two factors, something they have (Goldkey PIV Token) and something they know (the user’s PIN).
Once Goldkey’s PIV smart card token has been initialized and configured, Goldkey may be used on Windows 7 systems for authentication without installing any software, drivers, or middleware. This feature is especially important in secure applications where it is not possible to install outside software on a computer.
Goldkey’s PIV Token ought to eliminate the need for an external smart card reader and ought to introduce performance gains over traditional smart cards for log-in authentication and document signing. Goldkey does not require an internal battery for power and features a rugged, water-tight design – making it one of the most durable smart card tokens on the market.
Goldkey employs the PIV (Personal Identity Verification) specification developed by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). PIV is widely deployed in government and is now supported by Mac OS X and Windows 7. Goldkey’s PIV Token may be deployed within Windows XP and Vista through the use of middleware. (Source: Goldkey Security Corporation/GST)