RSA joins hands with Microsoft

MUMBAI, INDIA: RSA, The Security Division of EMC announced that its multi-factor authentication solution, RSA SecurID, can be integrated with the Microsoft Windows Active Directory Federation Services 2.0  (AD FS 2.0). This integration can enable organizations to provide secure user access to Office 365 cloud-based web applications such as Microsoft Exchange technology. Secure, federated access control enables an organization to extend the protection for remote users to applications deployed outside an organization's network.

Many of the world's largest and most demanding organizations have deployed critical services on the Windows Azure cloud platform, add a release. Microsoft AD FS 2.0 is a security token service (STS) that enables identity federation across multiple IT systems and across organizations by centralizing user authentication, authorization and single sign-on to Web applications and services located virtually anywhere — including perimeter networks, partner networks, and the cloud.

"AD FS 2.0 allows our customers to extend their identity capabilities across organizations, as well as connecting their on-premises identities to cloud services," said Samuel Devasahayam, Principal Program Manager Lead, Active Directory, at Microsoft. "Identity federation is strategic to Microsoft, and we are excited to work with RSA to give customers supplemental levels of security for identity federation with AD FS 2.0."

By integrating RSA SecurID technology with Microsoft AD FS 2.0, both solutions work together to help provide secure and non-repudiable access to cloud-based or remote services with identities provisioned and administered by enterprise IT.  RSA SecurID technology solves the "weak link" issue of poorly chosen passwords by enforcing strong, multi-factor authentication.  "RSA SecurID technology is the gold standard in authentication and is designed to provide very high levels of access security," said Sam Curry, CTO of Identity and Data Protection for RSA, The Security Division of EMC.  "By deploying RSA SecurID authentication with a service like Microsoft AD FS 2.0, it extends RSA's premier authentication control and management to virtually any enterprise resource connected to the cloud.  Organizations can take advantage of the Microsoft Office 365 services to support use cases for cloud-based collaboration, while at the same time protecting sensitive company information by requiring secure authentication of end users. This level of integration provides added confidence in the secure migration to cloud services."