Aware teams with MFA provider to fight ransomware, makes $2.5M strategic investment

Aware has formed a partnership with Miracl, which provides multi-factor authentication through a single step, and made a $2.5 million investment in its new partner’s parent company Omlis Limited, as it seeks to apply its biometrics to minimizing risk from data breaches and ransomware.

The partnership is expected to enable Aware to extend its cloud-based biometric authentication to customers in financial services and other industries to protect against data breaches and ransomware, through a mutual reseller agreement, according to the announcement. Miracle contributes risk management functionality to Aware’s solutions portfolio, and makes its “adaptive authentication” services more varied to fit specific customer needs.

“Data breaches and ransomware are continuing to wreak havoc on enterprises, and recent high-profile attacks like the Colonial Pipeline are reminders of the escalating threats we continue to face,” says Bob Eckel, chief executive officer and president of Aware. “In many cases, government agencies are calling on organizations to pursue multifactor authentication (MFA) to enhance their security. To date, many defenses against cybercrimes have relied on zero knowledge trust, which has several disadvantages; or traditional passwords, which are prone to login errors and irritating reset requirements. With MFA that incorporates biometrics, organizations can now have unprecedented protection and user privacy without the risks or frustrations of other approaches. This technology we now have available is an important and effective tool against these sorts of attacks.”

The partners can sell each other’s technologies and integrate them into their own product lines under the agreement, which will allow them to bring passwordless login products to market quickly.

Miracl gains access to Aware’s affordable, high-performance biometrics to provide a more extensive range of authentication capabilities along with its flagship authentication and transaction-signing solution, Miracl Trust.

“Ransomware attacks have increased more than 150 percent between the first six months of 2021 compared to the same period the previous year. MFA is now an essential deterrent,” says Rob Griffin, chief executive officer at MIRACL. “MFA incorporating advanced biometrics – which verify an individual’s identity based on unique physical characteristics – are a stronger defense than most other approaches available today. We expect the market to be very receptive to the addition of Aware biometrics to our authentication offerings and look forward to a strong and mutually beneficial partnership moving forward.”

The investment in Omlis comes in the form of a strategic investment in loan stock.

Aware has been building out its toolset for financial services with the recent acquisition of Fortress Identity, and for data privacy through a partnership with Anonybit.

Article Topics

access management  |  Aware  |  biometrics  |  cybersecurity  |  enterprise  |  identity verification  |  investment  |  Miracl  |  multifactor authentication  |  ransomware  |  stocks