With simple username/password security inadequate for on-line banking, financial organisations are now turning to more flexible, next generation security solutions better aligned to the different levels of risk associated with different transactions and services.

Thales e-Security delivers a family of access control solutions from cryptographically strengthened passwords such as WebPIN, digital certificate authentication and smartcard systems, through to middle office authentication servers and identity management systems like the proven SafeSign® architecture.

SafeSign provides a versatile and extensible range of strong authentication methods, supporting the business case for e-banking that demands the most appropriate authentication mechanism for each customer: low cost and easy to use for those consumers needing only a small set of available facilities; stronger and more robust for power users and business e-banking customers.

Thales e-Security is a pioneer in authentication based on EMV card technology, available to banks already issuing EMV-compliant credit and debit cards to their customers. Low cost and scalability make this solution ideal for consumer and SME Internet banking services.

The company is working with APACS (Association for Payment Clearing Services) in the UK and MasterCard and VISA globally to support all relevant standards in this area, and is trialling an EMV token-based authentication version of SafeSign.