Authentication As A Service

The Optimal Authentication Service™ (OAS), is an Authentication-as-a-Service (AaaS) offering. OAS is a  hosted RESTful web service that provides customers with the ability to perform various types and levels of authentications including single authentication and multi-factor authentication (MFA).

OAS may be deployed in any data center and is offered in a multi-tenant environment as well as in an isolated/dedicated environment. OAS can easily integrate into your applications using the RESTful call or by using the Optimal IdM .NET SDK or jQuery plugin.

OAS permits the addition of MFA and can be fully integrated into The OptimalCloud™.

Easily Add MFA Capabilities to Web & Non-Web Applications

Because OAS is available via industry standard REST calls, both web and non-web applications may easily add MFA capabilities, including passwordless authentication options. As a MFA service, OAS helps prevent phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks by delivering push notifications to a user’s registered mobile device which optionally works with fingerprint-enabled systems. OAS includes other MFA options like Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP) and traditional One-Time Passcodes (OTP) that can be sent via Short Message Service (SMS), Email or voice calls.

OAS can be used as a stand-alone option or in conjunction with a complete Identity Access and Management (IAM) program.  When integrating with an existing system, you can leverage OTPs via SMS, Email or voice without storing any information about the user in the cloud service.  When using TOTP or push notifications, only device information is stored, which reduces the amount of personal identifiable information that is needed.  The service can also be used to access applications in a passwordless authentication method by sending a push notifications to a mobile device for logins.

By leveraging an external AaaS offering, any business can benefit from a proven, tested and trusted solution.  Internal teams that may develop in-house authentication solutions may not have the expertise in authentication and security processes to ensure that the in-house solution produced does not have a vulnerability.  User Authentication-as-a-Services also supports rapid deployment scenarios, as most AaaS providers provide plugins (jQuery) and APIs (RESTful Services, etc.) to allow for easy integration into enterprise applications. With an AaaS provider, an enterprise can rapidly and easily secure its internal and external applications with multi-factor authentication methods (one-time passcodes, push authentication, etc.).  MFA provides more security than password authentication alone.  Also, while single-sign-on (SSO) offers convenience, AaaS adds extra layers of security by not only providing strong authentication, but access control policies, auditing visibility and administrative controls.