Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[Genz2]

More reasons for using Wave MFA (Wave VSC 2.0)

PwC lauds Trusted Platform Module for strong authentication

Firm migrating 150,000 users to TPM-based storage of private keys

Author:

Ellen Messmer

networkworld.com -

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 -

Auditing and business-services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) today said it's built its next-generation authentication system by swapping out employees' older software-based private-key certificates for hardware-based storage of new certificates using the Trusted Platform Module (TPM).

What is TPM?

TPM is a small chip embedded in laptops, says Boudewijn Kiljan, solution architect for global information technology, infrastructure portfolio, at PwC, which is migrating 150,000 users to TPM-based storage of private keys. The vast majority of computers on the market ship with TPM inside, and by adding TPM-based software from Wave Systems, it was fairly easy for PwC, which already had a public-key infrastructure (PKI) in place, to switch to hardware-based storage of private keys, the foundation for employee desktop authentication.

In contrast, "private keys protected by TPM are not exportable," Kiljan said. The Microsoft-based software-only method that PwC had been using to store private keys does appear to be far more vulnerable to an attacker intent on stealing private keys, he noted.

TPM, developed as a specification by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), is an open standard so there's less worry about vendor lock-in than if a more proprietary method were selected, Kiljan pointed out. One thing to note about TPM is that it's a restricted technology in the countries of China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, he noted.

But while making the conversion to TPM has been fairly easy by adding TPM-supporting software from Wave Systems, there were a number of processes that the IT department at PwC had to follow to make it all work.

These included issuing new certificates for TPM, installing TPM drivers, and a process called enabling and clearing the TPM in the BIOS.

Technically, the TPM specification doesn't yet have a specification that details a way to do this other than manually. But several vendors, including Wave Systems, now have toolkits to do this remotely and build management around it. That's what PwC used to activate TPM via administrator-controlled passwords.

PwC has already migrated about 35,000 employees to TPM, and expects to have all 150,000 over to TPM over the course of about a year or so. TPM works transparent to the user. Kiljan says estimates are that TPM is less than half the cost of going with a smartcard-based PKI device and a third of going with a USB PCI device.
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Wave Systems Announces First U.S. Federal Government Customer for Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0

http://www.wavesys.com/buzz/pr/wave-systems-announces-first-us-federal-government-customer-wave-virtual-smart-card-2.0

Lee, MA -

October 2, 2014 -

Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX) marked an important sales milestone by announcing the first U.S. federal government customer for its Virtual Smart Card 2.0.

Since the Virtual Smart Card 2.0 became commercially available in late July 2014, Wave has entered into dozens of pilot deployments in multiple sectors, including healthcare, financial services, automotive, energy and utilities. However, today’s announcement marks the product’s first sale in the government sector.

“This is an important milestone for Wave,” said Bill Solms, CEO of Wave. “Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0 has been purchased by a government agency with significant security requirements and one that requires redundant means of system authentication due to national security interests. This initial sale is modest compared to the addressable market within the Federal Government sector, but it is important to our strategy for marketing the Virtual Smart Card to address critical government infrastructure defense.”

“We believe that this sale, which was completed on a shorter sales cycle than we had anticipated, supports our view that customers are interested in the type of cyber security solution that Wave’s Virtual Smart Card 2.0 provides,” Solms added.

Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0 is the industry’s only enterprise-grade virtual smart card management solution that works on Windows 7. It also supports Windows 8 and 8.1. Wave’s new solution emulates the functionality of physical smart cards or tokens, but offers greater convenience to users, lower total cost of ownership, and a reduced risk of unauthorized use.

Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0 gives IT the ability to:
• Remotely create and delete virtual smart cards
• Provide help desk-assisted recovery
• Configure PIN and card policies
• View the status of virtual smart cards and enrolled certificates
• Generate reports for compliance
• Support virtual smart cards on laptops, tablets and desktops with TPM 1.2 or TPM 2.0
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Wave Announces 5-Year Master License Agreement for Virtual Smart Card 2.0 with Leading Global Financial Services Company

Wins competitive evaluation against market leader in two-factor authentication tokens

http://www.wavesys.com/buzz/pr/wave-announces-5-year-master-license-agreement-virtual-smart-card-20-leading-global

Lee, MA -

December 17, 2015 -

Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX) announces a five-year master licensing agreement (MLA) with a leading global corporation (as determined by the 2015 Fortune Global 500 List) for its Virtual Smart Card 2.0 solution. This MLA sets the terms and pricing for licenses and maintenance across the customer’s global organization and establishes it as their preferred two-factor authentication solution. Instead of one large license purchase for the entire organization, each of the customer’s subordinate divisions will make separate orders in accordance with the terms of this MLA.

The first purchase of 2,000 VSC 2.0 licenses under this agreement, when added to a previous purchase, completes the requirement for the customer’s global IT division. That division will now lead the internal effort to standardize the remaining 150,000+ endpoints within their organization with the new Wave VSC 2.0 solution. While there are no minimum order requirements under the agreement, discussions for additional orders are underway.

“Our five-year agreement with this customer is the first very large scale contract for VSC 2.0 and is an important milestone for Wave,” said Bill Solms, President and CEO of Wave Systems. “This customer is a major global financial services company and their standards for protecting their systems from unauthorized access and the integrity of their data are of the highest order. Wave had to pass a very rigorous technical and business review to win the competition. We believe that this client’s decision to choose Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0 over their incumbent solution gives us tremendous credibility in the two-factor authentication market. We will remain engaged with this company in order to complete the additional sales and deployments in the months ahead.”

Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0 is a tokenless, hardware-based, two-factor authentication solution that offers superior security at less than half the cost of comparable solutions. It is the industry’s only enterprise-grade virtual smart card management solution that works on Windows 7, 8 and 10. It also provides management support for the Microsoft Virtual Smart Card on Windows 8 and 10. Wave’s VSC solution emulates the functionality of physical smart cards or tokens, but offers greater convenience to users, significantly lower total cost of ownership, and a greatly reduced risk of unauthorized access.

Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0 gives IT the ability to:
• Remotely create and delete virtual smart cards
• Provide help desk-assisted recovery
• Configure Passphrase and card policies
• View the status of virtual smart cards and enrolled certificates
• Generate reports for compliance
• Support virtual smart cards on laptops, tablets and desktops with both TPM 1.2 and TPM 2.0 security chips
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