College strengthens enterprise security with biometrics, SSO from BIO-key’s PortalGuard

BIO-key‘s PortalGuard Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) platform was selected for deployment by the IT team at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, CA for single sign-on (SSO) and passwordless access control through biometrics and other authentication methods.

The move will help the institution strengthen its enterprise security posture, as well as user experience for its 19,000 students, through a simplified and more secure SSO experience.

“While passwords remain the most common way to authenticate your identity online, their frequently breached vulnerabilities provide very little protection for users,” explained BIO-key President Mark Cochran.

Following the deployment, PortalGuard will monitor and defend SSO access to over 20 enterprise applications within the college IT systems, including Ellucian Banner, Brightspace, Canvas LMS, and Microsoft Office 365, among others.

This will reportedly reduce the chance of security breaches, as well as improving mobile adoption.

After implementing PortalGuard within the college’s systems, Rio Hondo said it will also take advantage of its Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) security improvements.

For context, PortalGuard currently offers 16 different MFA options, several of them using biometrics.

The latest authentication method added by the company is palm biometrics, with BIO-key releasing a new mobile app dubbed MobileAuth last month, capable of scanning users’ palms and introducing the concept of Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB).

“MobileAuth is a powerful new biometric capability that we have built into PortalGuard IDaaS to provide secure, individual-tied access that eliminates the inconvenience, security risks, and higher costs of traditional authentication methods,” Cochran added.

The new app aims at improving the overall usability of the PortalGuard IDaaS platform, as well as enhancing its security capabilities further.

“While many vendors do not take usability seriously enough, PortalGuard IDaaS delivers an enterprise-grade cloud IAM solution with frictionless access and security improvements, allowing our customers to achieve their cybersecurity objectives while also improving the user experience,” Cochran concluded.

BIO-key has recently reported major biometric revenue gains, as well as a new distribution partnership with UVS Infotech.

Article Topics

access management  |  BIO-key  |  biometrics  |  cybersecurity  |  IDaaS  |  identity management  |  identity verification  |  multi-factor authentication  |  PortalGuard  |  single sign-on