RSA acquires PassBan, to provide Multifactor Authentication

By Darshik Jariwala - July, 27th 2013

RSA acquired a San-Francisco based security firm named PassBan yesterday. RSA, being one of the most reputed computer and Network Security firm understands the challenges faced by companies and consumers alike when it comes to security and so acquiring PassBan can been seen as one of the important events for the company. PassBan uses cloud-based multifactor authentication technology.

If you may recollect, many big companies have in the past 2 years or so have been implementing the Two-Factor Authentication. PassBan takes the two factor Authentication to the next level. A traditional two factor requires a user to enter a password and a code or PIN. In PassBan, however, it could be your face, voice, location, token, motion or an on-demand OTP (One Time Password).  Of course it may not be foolproof but it sure does take the security level of two factor method a notch higher. Different combinations of password can be used.

RSA has not released the cost of the deal or any such information. We are not sure if the company plans to release that information either. PassBan is going to deliver under RSA’s Adaptive IAM team.

RSA is well known for its SecurID tokens, which is one of the most preferred security methods used by major companies globally. RSA Authentication Manager 8 platform for enterprises, cloud and mobile IT environments, will take advantage of the features and extra security measures that PassBan provides. Kayvan Alikhani, PassBan’s CEO, also informed about the same news in Passban’s company blog .

Update: The page on the above provided link has been removed by the company

RSA Security LLC, was previously known as RSA Security, Inc. was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2006. RSA was named after the initials of its founders Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Len Adleman. The RSA cryptography algorithm is also considered to be one of the most secure algorithms today.

Source: RSA and Passban (Both have now removed the posts from their resp. sites)

Edit (11th Aug, 2014): Removed links from sources as the posts have been deleted.

Feature Photo Credit – Edwin Sarmiento/Flickr