EMC Buys Startup To Bolster Authentication Portfolio

EMC Monday announced its acquisition of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Verid, a vendor of knowledge based authentication technology.

Verid develops initial authentication technology, which verifies users' identities during the first stages of customer and partner relationships, said Marc Gaffan, director of product marketing at RSA, the security division of EMC, Hopkinton, Mass.

In the knowledge based authentication process, users are taken through a series of questions that only they would know, such as the name of the first street they lived on as a child, for example.

"Verid's technology is geared to identify users during the initial encounter, before they've become a trusted customer or partner," said Gaffan.

Verid lets financial industry service providers put users that don't pass the initial authentication on a type of 'probation' to ensure that they're legitimate and desirable organizations, which lets them gain customers and partners they would have otherwise lost due to technicalities, said Gaffan.

"The combination of Verid's initial authentication and RSA's ongoing authentication gives us a continuous view of the customer relationship, from the prospect stage until after an acquisition of a customer or partner," said Gaffan.

Verid has channel partners of its own, and RSA will seek to leverage these existing channel relationships in the financial sector, according to Gaffan.

In addition to the financial industry, Verid's technology can also be used by telecommunications carriers and utility companies to verify customer identities before providing service, said Gaffan.

The deal closed on June 1. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

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