Survey: User Name/Passwords Used By 99% of European Firms, But PKI On The Rise

PRESS RELEASE

NEWTON, MA " Nov. 16, 2009 -- According to a survey by market research institute DT&P international, which was commissioned by TC TrustCenter GmbH, a company of ChosenSecurity, the combination of user name and password remains the most commonly used authentication method (99% of respondents authenticate in this way) for remote access among European firms surveyed.

In the background, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), in the form of digital certificates, is making headway, showing real momentum as a means of granting remote access. In fact, 77% of those surveyed use PKI as a preferred method for remote access security in addition to user name and password.

The survey, conducted in August 2009, focuses on the handling of remote access security by European companies of over 500 employees. Respondents included organizations from IT services, consulting, insurance and utilities industries.

The survey highlights that businesses see high levels of security as a necessity when accessing data remotely. Other selection criteria that were depicted through the survey results as being essential to remote access security include low administrative overheads, access locking capabilities and reasonably low training requirements. On demand certificate management services users have been able to benefit from these functions as well as the ability to quickly and safely replace lost, defective or forgotten access tokens.

Although high levels of security were shown in the survey to be a primary concern, surprisingly, the majority of respondents reported that their businesses did not currently use strong access keys such as hardware tokens and Trusted Platform Modules (TPM). Instead, medium security methods such as digital keys and certificates proved more popular. Only 24% of respondents are currently using hardware tokens, and only 25% use TPM devices, which are essentially crypto chips in a laptop that work like integrated smart card devices.

"The survey has shown that digital trust applications have come of age and are commonly used by businesses," said John Adams, CTO at ChosenSecurity. "The universal nature and the advanced integration of PKI systems with identity management systems, alongside the easy handling that comes with it, is clearly indicated by the results of the survey."

About TC TrustCenter

For more than 10 years TC TrustCenter provides world wide trust to digital communication between employees, clients, partners and suppliers. As one of the first Trustcenters we provide world wide trust to the internet and electronic B2B Business with our Managed Services. In Europe as well as in the US, TC TrustCenter has a broad range of project and industry experience regarding PKI, and has worked with a broad range of international customers. The TC TrustCenter portfolio ranges from solutions for Phishing Protection, Security of Online Transactions and Electronic Invoicing as well as broader PKI solutions and Managed Security Services. Our On-Demand Digital Identity solutions are cost-efficient, highly secure and fast to implement. TC TrustCenter is accredited according to the German Signature Act, European Signature Act, Identrust, SAFE, T"VIT and SISAC.

About ChosenSecurity, Inc. (www.chosensecurity.com)

ChosenSecurity provides digital trust between employees, clients and suppliers doing business electronically through on-demand certificate management services. The company's solutions enable a wide range of digital trust applications to provide strong authentication, secure e-mail, digital signatures, data encryption and support compliance with privacy and other regulations. ChosenSecurity was the first to provide digital certificate management through a Software as a Service model and remains the leader through its breakthrough economics, versatility and implementation speed for enterprises. Unlike traditional PKI and private certificate authority options, ChosenSecurity solutions can be implemented in 70% less time and 70% less cost.