Mobile Phones Generate Passwords

New software from Secure Computing could soon let your mobile handset serve as a second factor of authentication for remote access to the enterprise network.

Secure Computing on July 9 will officially roll out SafeWord MobilePass, which generates one-time passcodes from a user's mobile phone, Dark Reading has learned.

"It's an alternative to the hardware token," says Stuart Rauch, director of product marketing for Secure Computing. "Since a lot of [enterprise] users have mobile phones with them now all the time, they can have this installed on the phone so they don't have to carry a hardware token."

Secure Computing has already begun quietly shipping the MobilePass application to some of its customers. The catch is that it's a tool for the company's SafeWord PremierAccess 4.0 authentication management software for remote access using Microsoft's Active Directory.

The user basically pulls up the app on a phone, pushes a button, and it generates a one-time password for logging onto the corporate network. MobilePass works on BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile, and J2ME-enabled mobile devices, and Secure Computing plans to make the software available for Windows-based laptops and desktop machines as well.

Secure Computing's PremierAccess software starts at about $100 per user.

— Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading