Securing Identities in the Cloud:
Simple Methods, Satisfied Customers
By
Jan Valcke
As web applications continue to proliferate, identity theft and fraud expand to chronic levels in the United Kingdom. CIFAS, the U.K.’s Fraud Prevention Service, reported that nearly 250,000 confirmed frauds were identified during 2012. Also, it’s only gotten worse overseas in the last couple of years. In the U.S., MasterCard and Visa spend over a billion each year to fight identity theft and web companies are increasingly the subject of class action lawsuits due to online security breaches. Web companies need to find a safer method for securing the identity of their users. Thankfully, new cloud solution providers are responding, offering solutions with strong authentication and the convenience of the cloud and your mobile device. This post will lay out the challenges and solutions to securing customers on the web simply, thereby reducing fraud, preventing additional expense and litigation and—most importantly—building trust with their users.
Building Brand and Community in the Cloud: Secure SSO as a Tool to Grow Your Online Business
Top global companies understand the value of building brands on the web. In fact, two of the most valuable brands in the world, Apple and Google, each brand valued at well over $70B, were built largely on the web. Therefore, web companies are always looking for ways to increase customer engagement with their brand and provide customers with additional value. With the current proliferation of user names and passwords, many companies are looking to single sign-on (SSO) platforms to provide user convenience in managing the 25+ applications with which the web user interfaces. But SSO can be more than just a tool to manage logins; it can also be a brand building community where users can have pre-populated tabs that web companies use to position their multiple online brands. Furthermore, it can provide strong, convenient authentication for users building trust with consumers and it encourages more buying. SSO can also be a tool to monetize that community through a commission on other web applications and, finally, a tool that delivers your brand’s look and feel. Online companies can now satisfy the web consumer’s need for SSO and, in doing so, deliver higher customer engagement, increase brand value and draw higher revenue.
Jan Valcke is President and COO at VASCO Data Security.
