When the going gets tough!
The authentication token is the piece of IT hardware that has to operate for years in the most hostile computing environment of all: your users' pockets!
Reliability is essential. The last thing you need is for a senior executive to be 'stranded' with a faulty token when they are away from the office and be unable to work for the duration of their trip. The few pounds you saved by buying cheaper devices will quickly be lost in user frustration, angry phone calls to your helpdesk and loss of productivity.
The token you choose must be battle-hardened to survive the daily punishment that it will receive: shock, vibration, electrostatic discharges and even the odd trip through the washing machine: no other item of technology gets subjected to the same level of abuse on a daily basis.
National Testing Systems, an independent test lab was recently commissioned to run tests to mimic the stresses that the typical token has to endure in its lifetime in a user's pocket. They compared RSA SecurID SID 700 tokens against Vasco's GO-3 tokens in 8 separate tests which included 2 hours immersion in a water tank, static electricity discharges and even being run over by a pick-up truck!
You can read the Test lab report [here]: but in short, RSA SecurID passed all tests without a single failure, whereas the cheaper token failed in 6 out of the 8 tests.
Commenting on these test results, Chris Bird, Signify's Customer Services Manager says: "As a fully managed service we are on the front line, supporting tens of thousands of our clients' end users on a 24x7 basis. The saving of a few pounds buying a cheap token is quickly consumed in higher support costs over a three year period. In our experience, investing a little more on quality will pay you back many times over."
John Stewart, Signify's CEO adds: "Cheaper tokens may might be adequate for lightweight, consumer applications such as on-line banking where the token typically stays in the user's desk drawer for its entire life. However we are supporting busy executives and engineers who need to log in 24x7 to get their work done from all sorts of locations. Downtime is unacceptable and we know from experience that RSA SecurID is the only token tough enough to survive on the user frontline! Buying anything cheaper really is a false economy."
.jpg)