RSA takes two-factor authentication to Android

The RSA software will be available from Android Market this month

RSA has developed a two-factor authentication system for the Android platform.

The RSA SecurID Software Token for Android is aimed at enterprise users and is an extension of the company’s existing two-factor technology, which uses hardware or software tokens with a constantly changing password to enhance security.

“Making the transition wasn’t overly difficult, the platform makes it easy for developers,” Matt Hathaway, senior product manager at RSA told V3.co.uk.

“The model is working and there’s a huge demand from customers, which we saw with our early access programme. It seems there are a lot of people interested.”

While IT managers were seeing the benefit of two-factor authentication the market is still split between those who want specialist hardware tokens and others who are happy with a software solution, Hathaway explained.

RSA is also releasing a software development kit for the Android platform to allow third-party developers to integrate the technology into enterprise applications. The software will be released later this month on Android Market.

“RSA is doing all the right things here,” Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told V3.co.uk.

“Someone’s going to do a cost analysis and realise that creating, maintaining and supporting these tokens with a smartphone makes sense. This is a technology whose time has come.”