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Introducing a New Kind of Security Key: ZenKey

It used to be that before you walked out the door, you always made sure you had your keys and your wallet. The “key and wallet check” was essential to leaving your home with a clear head. Now, your smartphone has undoubtedly joined the fray as something equal to, or even more important than, those other vital items. Leaving your house without your smartphone likely seems inconceivable, and whether we want to admit it or not, it is one of the most ubiquitous things in our lives.

Your Smartphone Can Do More

Your phone understands who you are, knows where you are, it’s connected to a powerful network that is your portal to the world. So why not use that knowledge? Why do websites continue to ask me to register and log in with usernames and passwords when there is a device in my pocket that can authenticate me? Could the networks that power our smart devices play a role by adding additional, seamless security?

Using ZenKey to Unlock Trust

These questions now have an answer. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have created something meaningful with the launch of ZenKey. ZenKey is a new solution that leverages the  network and SIM card details to deliver authentication and identity verification features to web and mobile applications. ZenKey is differentiated because it relies on network and device data and can’t be hacked using only a stolen username and password or even a malicious SIM swap.

What This Means for Your Security

Even more exciting is that ForgeRock is a launch partner with ZenKey, giving customers the ability to leverage the ZenKey Authentication Node in ForgeRock’s Intelligent Access solution. This node provides instant, drop-in support for the ZenKey service. By simply leveraging the ZenKey node, any website or service can offer an alternative to long registration forms and password-based logins with a highly secure, device-based, multifactor authentication.

Now, ForgeRock customers can quickly reduce abandonment during sign-ups while receiving trusted user attributes from MNOs. This capability helps reduce the risk of fraud while creating an identity pre-populated with user attributes. Once a user is enrolled in ZenKey, ForgeRock Intelligent Access can use ZenKey to power a highly secure passwordless authentication experience. This integration delivers a tremendous balance between security and usability, something every ForgeRock customer is trying to accomplish.

As more apps, websites and services take advantage of the combination of ZenKey and ForgeRock for seamless registration and authentication, one of the keys you will never leave home without will be your ZenKey.

 Learn more about ForgeRock Intelligent Access here

 


*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Forgerock Blog authored by Ben Goodmann. Read the original post at: https://www.forgerock.com/blog/introducing-new-kind-security-key-zenkey