Axiad, a leading provider of cloud-based passwordless authentication and secure interactions for users and machines, today announced the general availability of Airlock, a key feature of the Axiad Cloud SMARTidentity platform.
Axiad has taken a new approach to accelerating the journey to passwordless with Airlock. Users tend to find workarounds in security policies or procrastinate on deploying a new credential they have received, especially when they’re working remotely. They tend to continue using passwords until it is absolutely necessary for them to issue or renew their credential, making it difficult for their organization to achieve true passwordless authentication. Airlock takes the decision-making away from the user by allowing IT teams to assign employees specific directives before they can gain full access to a company system – such as issuing a new credential, taking a security training, etc. - ensuring security best practices are followed before they can work on any other projects, every time no matter where they are.
From the employee perspective, Airlock streamlines the process to easily set up a new device or replace a lost authentication credential, without depending on IT support. As soon as they have completed the task, they are then able to get access to their full system and continue their day. Airlock can also be customized to an organization’s specific needs such as to keep users up to date with their organizations’ latest security policies and necessary training when required. This provides significant benefits to the organization by freeing IT resources for other priorities and accelerates the transition to a passwordless future.
“The shift from the office environment to the distributed or hybrid environments which the pandemic has accelerated means that ensuring users are following the company’s security and MFA best practices is extremely difficult. Airlock has the significant impact of enforcing enterprise security policy across the board, so they can be certain that all of their users are meeting their security policies,” said Jerome Becquart, COO of Axiad.
Airlock easily integrates with a company’s existing IAM infrastructure and can be customized to their specific needs. Axiad also works seamlessly with a variety of hardware authentication solutions, including https://www.yubico.com/products/yubikey-5-overview/ security key, to prevent account takeovers and security breaches at scale.
“Deploying strong authentication solutions to disparate employees can be challenging,” said Percy Wadia, VP of Product Management at Yubico. “The YubiKey works with the Axiad Cloud SMARTidentity Platform to offer flexibility and cost-efficiency with comprehensive multi-protocol support that secures legacy and modern systems. Yubico also helps organizations easily and cost-effectively procure and distribute YubiKeys for users at scale with YubiEnterprise Services, accelerating deployment and management of YubiKeys as a complement to Axiad Airlock.”
By all indications, the remote work trend is here to stay and ensuring the security policies are being followed by remote workers will be a business imperative for years to come. Industry statistics have shown that 40% of remote workers admit to finding workarounds in their systems to stay productive. With Airlock, Axiad ensures that best practices are in place for productivity and security for both the organization and the user.
“The Airlock general release comes at an essential time for businesses – as digital transformation continues to accelerate, IT leaders need to ensure consistent and secure authentication across their remote workforces,” said Becquart.
Webinar: Shape user behavior to drive MFA best practices with Axiad Airlock and YubiKeys
Axiad and Yubico will present a webinar at 9am PT on Thursday, April 22, to discuss the ways organizations can be empowered to adapt to the security demands of a hybrid/remote workforce, and adopt security best practices and overcome the logistical challenges that come with it. Register for the webinar at: https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/18706/478085?utm_source=Axiad&utm_medium=brighttalk&utm_campaign=478085