Two-factor authentication fact sheet

Overview
Increasing rates of online fraud and legislative mandates throughout the world have organisations scrambling to guard against today's and tomorrow's threats.

With two-factor authentication, businesses can confidently conduct e-commerce by verifying customers with "something they have" along with "something they know".

Companies require an appropriate form of authentication for each website circumstance. Situations can vary greatly depending on the customer and the context of their using a website.

In a trusted environment with two-factor security in place, both customers and businesses profit.

About FMT Octopus
FMT Octopus™ plugs into the infrastructure layer to rapidly deliver a variety of two-factor authentication approaches or provide a vehicle to manage new or existing two-factor deployments more effectively. With either option, it enhances website security, controls operational costs and improves the customer experience. The front-end solution takes a few hours to deploy and no APIs or code changes to other applications are required.

FMT Octopus views all Internet transaction data flowing to and from a browser and e-application. It uses a preprocessing filter to examine the information and implements two-factor authentication based upon an organisation's preset policies and procedures.

Out of the box, the plug-in is able to send both SMS and email one-time passwords, as well as implement knowledge-based challenge and response strategies using internal or external data sources. The second-factor authentication can take place when the customer first logs on, or immediately prior to predetermined website activities deemed risky by the business - such as the sale of a high-risk product in the shopping cart or an unusual transaction pattern.

FMT Octopus supports numerous two-factor authentication methods including mutual image-based selection, shared secrets, knowledge-based criteria and one-time password creation.

FMT Octopus Advantages
Moves organisations toward regulatory compliance. Adhering to ever-changing legislative mandates can be a challenge. In many instances, a two-factor authentication strategy or policy takes so long to implement it is out of date before it even goes live. With FMT Octopus, organisations can more quickly move toward compliance with FFIEC, HIPPA, SOX, Red Flags and other guidelines.

Adds a layer of security to reduce losses. FMT Octopus delivers an additional layer of Web application security. Users are forbidden to access applications until they are verified as legitimate customers and losses are prevented before damage ever occurs.

Mitigates fraud and helps prevent keystroke logging and password-based attacks. E-commerce organisations also can use specified criteria to enhance security measures as transactions unfold. This results in early detection of fraud and higher recovery rates of stolen funds.

Protects sensitive online information. By authenticating customers prior to their accessing private information, FMT Octopus helps prevent data breaches and the resulting fallout from the release of compromised information.

Safely communicate with website users. FMT Octopus cost-effectively uses two-factor authentication in real time to confirm legitimate users and can also send SMSs or emails to alert customers to higher-risk transactions taking place or simply to welcome new customers to the organisation.

Keeps a history of users' past authentication decisions. FMT Octopus can use a "history recorder" to detect, store and retrieve historical data from each two-factor action initiated, ignored and responded to. This allows prior success or failure decsions to help determine the necessity for repeat or predictable customer authentication to avoid unnecessary operational costs or customer impact. Authentication history is a valuable analytics and modeling database addition to improve authentication strategies that can be deployed by FMT Octopus.

Increases trust and confidence for brand reputation strength. Once the two-factor check has been made, both customers and companies can more confidently transact online. Satisfied, loyal customers and increased profitability result.

Provides a user-friendly interface. The software delivers industry-specific out-of-the-box policies and drag-and-drop rules creation. It requires limited IT expertise, with business staff easily able to use it and create changes.

Quick deployment and reduced costly and disruptive changes. FMT Octopus installs in hours in most configurations and requires no APIs or code changes. When rule changes are needed, modifications are made without any down time. And, as easily as changes are made, they can revert to previously deployed strategies.

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• About FMT Octopus
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