Pin+ offers free multi-factor authentication to charity workers

Jonathan Craymer, pin+'s director, said that the offer means that any one of the UK's 13.2 million charity workers will be eligible to receive a free copy of the firm's authentication software.

As part of the offer, Craymer told Infosecurity he also plans to offer the estimated 608.000 Charity employees a free copy of the firm's two-factor authentication.

"On paper the provision of two-factor authentication to that many staff would normally cost from three to thirty million pounds a year, and if someone were to charge market rates to give 13.2m volunteers secure login facilities, it would be hugely expensive", he said.

Craymer added that the charity offer is something that world needs and this is the ideal way get the company's name out into the computer using world.

"It's a way of helping the voluntary sector. Any worker can have a copy of the 1.5 authentication system, which is web-browser based and runs on a variety of devices, whilst the 2.0-factor authentication system we're offering to charity members of staff is a software token system that runs on a computer", he explained.

"As it's entirely software based, Pin+ will allow millions of staff, donors, supporters or even customers to log in securely. Hardware-based systems cost too much to cope with these kinds of numbers and could never be this scalable", he said.

"When we do start selling this to commercial organisations, pin+ licences will cost just pence per user per year for substantial numbers", he added.

As reported previously, pin+ takes what the company calls a matrix-pattern authentication (MPA) approach to securing logins, which involves the use of a 6x6 pattern matrix to generate a one-time code that consists of the numbers 1 to 6.

This 6x6x6x6 approach, says the firm, is a constant and, coupled with a trade-marked shield-shaped grid appearing on users' computers or terminals, aims to offer an instantly recognisable form of authentication.

Craymer claims that, pin+ completes the development of the web, which was never intended for things like e-commerce. Doing everything online or on the phone, he says, means we no longer know who we're dealing with. Pin+ will help to redress the balance.

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