Because of its ubiquity and availability on all handsets, text messaging has great potential to reach billions of users with a low total cost of ownership. Combined with the security of out-of-band authentication, SMS delivery of an OTP (one time passcode) can be a secure, cost-effective method of authentication for consumers, citizens, employees, contractors and partners.

In addition, OTPs expire after a brief period, making them ideal and ultimately secure via SMS; there is no need for customers to worry that the OTP will be "left" or "available" on the mobile device itself.

The Solution

Entrust opted to partner with Clickatell, in order to expand its ability to provide OTP delivery to mobile devices via SMS.

Often known as mobile soft tokens, the partnership expands the options available to customers using the Entrust IdentityGuard versatile authentication platform across multiple channels.

The Results

Clickatell's expertise and global reach provides Entrust customers the ability to use the Entrust IdentityGuard OTP authentication capabilities with a proven global delivery provider, providing simple and secure authentication to end-users and enabling a level of convenience and versatility not found on other third-party authenticators.

The partnership provides technology to enable single or multiple one-time passcodes to be sent to a mobile device. Entrust IdentityGuard can automatically issue a configurable number of OTPs directly to the end-user's mobile phone via Clickatell text messaging. These passcodes are used as a second factor for out-of-band authentication with Entrust IdentityGuard. Leveraging a user's existing mobile device, Entrust IdentityGuard can also provide automatic refresh of the passcodes and even enables user authentication while out of cell phone range, providing a continuous security capability to the end-user regardless of their location.