Bell Micro signs SecurEnvoy

The security division of VAD Bell Micro has kick-started 2010 by signing a partnership deal with SecurEnvoy to distribute its SecurAccess product suite.

The agreement will also see the two companies working together to ramp up awareness of tokenless two-factor authentication in the UK channel.

“We have been pro-actively reviewing the security market for new partners to complement existing products and services and establishing a business relationship with SecurEnvoy made complete market sense,” says Ed Callacher, security divisional director at Bell Micro.

The two factor authentication market is currently 95 percent hardware-orientated (tokens/USB/smart cards) and five percent tokenless, of which SecurEnvoy has more than 50 percent share of the market.

“It was an opportunity for us was to have a two-factor product in our portfolio. The market is not very crowded, and we want to make it worthwhile for early adopters,” says Callacher.

“There are only a handful of vendors in tokenless space, and the hardware token is still the standard but we’re seeing that change. The two- factor market is evolving into an essential part of a security solution.”

SecurAccess provides remote workers with ‘virtual tokens’ – essentially pass codes – which are forwarded to mobile phones, via SMS. These codes are then entered in to the system, alongside the usual login details, to enable users to access networks and emails securely.  This removes the need for users to carry traditional hardware tokens with them, which Bell Micro believes its channel partners, and their customers, will find compelling.

“Hardware gets lost and damaged and the associated business issues, such as employee downtime, then become a nightmare for businesses of all sizes to deal with,” says Callacher.

The agreement also means that Bell Micro is now pro-actively recruiting new security partners.

Callacher says end users can save 30 percent on switching from hardware to the tokenless model, with SecurEnvoy already listing Greenpeace and John Lewis Group as customers. “It’s tried and tested,” says Callacher. “You can do away with a piece of plastic, and replace it with a text message, on a device the customer probably already carries.”