Digital identity in education: BIO-key, Duo Push expand MFA in colleges

Educational institutions are cyber-attack targets like any other entity and so more of them are securing access to their networks with technology. BIO-key and Duo Push move into more colleges to provide multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions for staff and students alike.

30th college selects BIO-key’s PortalGuard IDaaS

BIO-key adds its thirtieth IDaaS college with North Central College, Illinois. The identity and access management firm now has more than 200+ higher education institutions as customers, including 300 using the PortalGuard service. Some but not all of those use BIO-key’s ‘Identity-Bound Biometrics.’

PortalGuard brings MFA and single sign-on across campus for the use of applications such as Microsoft Office 365 and Blackboard. The service also offers self-service password reset which can be a cost saving for an institution.

“Higher Education has become an attractive target for cyberattacks, so institutions are seeking highly secure, scalable, and redundant IAM solutions to safeguard both student and institutional data and resources,” comments Mark Cochran, president of PortalGuard at BIO-key.

The firm now covers more than 2.5 million students, staff, faculty and administration with its cloud-based solutions.

It recently partnered with Rio Arriba County in New Mexico and acquired Swivel Secure Europe to expand MFA offerings in the region.

UCF introduces MFA for all staff with Duo Push

The University of Central Florida is currently rolling out, department by department, MFA for all staff to secure access to networks and Microsoft Office 365 applications. Faculty and staff with be enrolled into MFA services operated by Duo Security.

Technically two-factor authentication, staff will use Duo Push for a one-tap acceptance for login notifications sent to a smartphone, smartwatch or tablet.

UCF students can also protect their Office 365 email and OneDrive via Microsoft MFA in the Authenticator App.

Article Topics

access management  |  authentication  |  BIO-key  |  biometrics  |  cybersecurity  |  digital identity  |  Duo Security  |  IDaaS  |  multifactor authentication  |  PortalGuard  |  schools