Tata Communications Offers Managed Two-Factor Authentication as a Cloud-based Service
Service Makes Strong Authentication More Accessible and Affordable; Helps Businesses Protect Information Assets Without the Cost of Deploying New Infrastructure
MUMBAI, India, January 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Tata Communications, a leading provider of a new world of communications, today announced the launch of its managed two-factor authentication service that adds to its portfolio of Managed Security Services (MSS). The new service helps all enterprises to further secure their networks and comply with security-specific certifications and regulations.
According to the Open Security Foundation(1), 436 security and database breaches compromising more than 218 million records have been reported in 2009. Tata Communications' managed authentication service helps address this by providing a globally consistent solution that helps organizations secure access to internal networks and infrastructure and prevents unauthorized access within and outside an organization.
"Enterprises around the globe are leveraging mobile devices and laptops on an increasing basis, raising the risk of a security breach," said John Landau, Senior Vice President of Global Managed Services for Tata Communications. "While two-factor authentication offers far more protection for enterprises than passwords, many enterprises have delayed the adoption because of the complexity of deployment, staffing requirements and infrastructure cost. Our hosted managed authentication service addresses these challenges for customers and reduces the cost of ownership for safeguarding the enterprise against unauthorized access."
The new service from Tata Communications is hosted and authenticates users before they are granted access to their organization's applications, data, services, and network devices. Users enter a personal identification number (PIN) and a six digit one-time passcode displayed on a token. Depending on their security policies and end users' preferences, customers can choose to use software or hardware tokens. Software tokens provide increased convenience as users no longer need to carry a separate device. Instead, they can leverage everyday mobile devices that they already own and carry such as smart phones and PDAs, or their own desktop.
Tata Communications has teamed up with the global leader in two-factor authentication, RSA--The Security Division of EMC (NYSE: EMC)--to help power the managed two-factor authentication solution. "RSA SecurID is the world's most widely deployed and trusted strong authentication solution with more than 20 years of outstanding performance and innovation," said Tom Corn, Vice President of Product Marketing for RSA, The Security Division of EMC. "By offering RSA SecurID through a managed authentication service, Tata Communications will help its enterprise customers bring confidence to everyday transactions by providing secure internal and remote access for employees, customers and partners.
With managed authentication, firms will be able to eliminate the learning curve associated with new technologies while saving on operational costs. Managed authentication incorporates best practices regarding secure authentication design, implementation, and change management of security systems to protect critical business assets. With a wholly managed authentication solution, no upfront investment is required to install and deploy infrastructure and servers. Tata Communications also handles all the details and time-consuming tasks related to token life-cycle management. In addition, staffing, administrative and logistics overhead, user management, and personnel requirements are greatly reduced, lowering total cost of ownership (TCO).
"Our software token technology and managed authentication service offer a compelling price advantage for mass deployment through mobile devices that can enable service providers and enterprises to quickly establish and maintain large-scale, trusted infrastructures," said Landau. "With more managed and secure end points, the volume of B2B and B2C communications will increase and this will help improve operational efficiency and streamline e-business transactions."
1. http://datalossdb.org/yearly_reports/dataloss-2009.pdf .
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Tata Communications Positioned in the Challengers Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Managed Security Services (http://www.tatacommunications.com/news/release-view.asp?d=20090430-gartner)
DDoS Detection & Mitigation by Tata Communications protects India Infrastructure from Sophisticated and Methodical Cyber Attacks (http://www.tatacommunications.com/news/release-view.asp?d=20080521-ddos)
Tata Communications Attains ISO 20000 and 27001 Certifications for Managed Services and Data Centers (http://www.tatacommunications.com/news/release-view.asp?d=20080605-iso)
Tata Communications Receives ISO 27001 Certification for Managed Security Services (http://www.tatacommunications.com/news/release-view.asp?d=20080812-iso20071)
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Tata Communications and Arbor Networks Receive 2008 Telephony Innovation Award for Most Innovative Managed Service (http://www.tatacommunications.com/news/release-view.asp?d=20081001- telephony)
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About Tata Communications
Tata Communications is a leading global provider of a new world of communications. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.
The Tata Global Network includes one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network, with connectivity to more than 200 countries across 400 PoPs, and nearly 1 million square feet of data center and collocation space worldwide.
Tata Communications' depth and breadth of reach in emerging markets includes leadership in Indian enterprise data services, leadership in global international voice, and strategic investments in operators in South Africa (Neotel), Sri Lanka (Tata Communications Lanka Limited), Nepal (United Telecom Limited), and subject to approval by the Chinese government, China (China Enterprise Communications).
Tata Communications Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India and its ADRs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. (NYSE: TCL)
http://www.tatacommunicaitons.com
For more information on Tata Communications' MSS offering visit: http://www.tatacommunications.com/enterprise/security/
Forward-looking and cautionary statements
Certain words and statements in this release concerning Tata Communications and its prospects, and other statements, including those relating to Tata Communications' expected financial position, business strategy, the future development of Tata Communications' operations, and the general economy in India, are forward-looking statements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including financial, regulatory and environmental, as well as those relating to industry growth and trend projections, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Tata Communications, or industry results, to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include, among others, failure to increase the volume of traffic on Tata Communications' network; failure to develop new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; failure to successfully complete commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services, including voice transmission services; failure to stabilize or reduce the rate of price compression on certain of the company's communications services; failure to integrate strategic acquisitions and changes in government policies or regulations of India and, in particular, changes relating to the administration of Tata Communications' industry; and, in general, the economic, business and credit conditions in India. Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, many of which are not in Tata Communications' control, include, but are not limited to, those risk factors discussed in Tata Communications' various filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at http://www.sec.gov. Tata Communications is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements.
RSA and SecurID are either registered trademarks or trademarks of RSA Security Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. EMC is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation. All other trade names and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
Media Contacts:
Janice Goveas
Tata Communications
+91-92233-94575
[email protected]
David Chin
Hill & Knowlton
+65-6390-3347
[email protected]
Abhishek Prakash
[email protected]
+65-6551-3698
SOURCE Tata Communications Limited
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