08 Jun HED: Hot IAM Market Fires i-Sprint’s Prospects
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend and Internet of Things (IoT) market expansion powers growth
– Sausalito, Calif. – Jun. 8, 2018
Malware attacks affecting millions of computers around the world grab headlines, but before malicious programs can act, they need to land on a targeted system. That’s typically done by gaining unauthorized access to those systems, which is why the identity and access management market is heating up.
Over the next four years, the market will grow at a heady 13.7 percent annual rate and reach $24.5 billion by 2022, according to a forecast by Grand View Research. It noted strict regulatory compliance and expanding government and enterprise budgets will spur market growth. Meanwhile, market volume will benefit from increased use of web applications and greater emphasis on risk management and cost containment. The Bring Your Own Device trend and expansion of the Internet of Things will also contribute to growth.
That growth will be even greater in the Asia-Pacific region driven by increased demand for cloud-based solutions from manufacturing and other verticals, as well as rapid industrial growth spurred by small- and medium-sized enterprises.
One company poised to cash in on that burgeoning demand in the Asia-Pacific region for IAM solutions is i-Sprint Innovations, included in the Cybersecurity Ventures 500, which lists the hottest and most innovative cybersecurity companies to watch in 2018. It’s also the only Far East company to crack Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for the access management market.
Founded in Singapore in 2000, i-Sprint cut its cybersecurity teeth in the demanding financial services industry and used that experience to broaden its reach into other sectors. “With our proven track record in the financial services industry and in regulated industries with strong compliance requirements,” explains i-Sprint CEO Dutch Ng, “we have been able to extend our market coverage to public services such as government agencies, critical infrastructure such as power plants, core services such as healthcare and education, and general businesses such as manufacturing.”
That extended market coverage now encompasses 150 regional financial institutions, government agencies, and large corporations, which use i-Sprint’s suite of security products to protect assets worth more than $10 trillion.
A broad array of integrated identity and access products are made by i-Sprint.
For operating an authentication infrastructure, the company offers its AccessMatrix Universal Authentication Server. The product gives organizations a lot of flexibility for meeting their needs by supporting multiple authentication methods, such as IDs and passwords, dynamic passwords, certificates, biometrics, and security tokens.
The company also has a single sign-on offering, AccessMatrix Universal Sign On. Single sign-on is attractive to both organizations, because it gives them better control over their employees’ logon activity, and workers, because it allows them to access applications and websites without the burden of remembering multiple sets of credentials. i-Sprint’s nonintrusive approach to USO combines sign-on and sign-off automation with context management and fast user switching on workstations to improve access to business information and reduce operational errors.
Another offering—employer to employee PINMailer—allows documents to be delivered to users securely through the use of a Tamper Resistant Server. Within the server, data can be merged and documents created, PINs and passwords generated, and PINs and documents encrypted.
The firm also has solutions for managing access and credentials in organizations.
Its web service-based AccessMatrix Universal Access Management offering integrates four security components — administration, authentication, authorization and audit services — to beef up application security and enforce fine-grained access policies to strictly control who sees what on a system.
Access to data can be further controlled with AccessMatrix Universal Credential Manager. It allows organizations to keep a tight rein on the use of privileged user IDs and passwords, which can be used to prevent data leakage and unauthorized access to confidential information.
A distinctive feature of i-Sprint’s products is the way they handle encryption. Encryption can boost data security, but it can also impose burdens on a system. i-Sprint makes encryption less burdensome by removing the need for complex coding when doing end-to-end encryption during a user’s login. Its solution provides headache free data encryption from a user application to a website where the data can be decrypted and verified.
“Our proven end-to-end encryption for transaction data and password protection solution has been designed to address the potential data leakage vulnerabilities in web servers and on the network,” i-Sprint’s CEO Albert Ching told Network World Asia.
In addition to its access solutions, i-Sprint has a cloud login service and a mobile device management offering.
Its SecurLogin service includes cloud-based two-factor authentication services for enterprises. Organizations don’t have to buy any hardware to take advantage of the service’s 2FA, but they may have to install a client application to support some authentication methods. SecurLogin itself contains a unified management platform that supports multiple authentication methods.
i-Sprint’s mobile offerings include YESsafe AppPortal+, YESsafe Token+is, and Token for SWIFT.
YESsafe AppPortal+ is a mobile application security management solution that creates a platform for deploying, securing, and running mobile apps, as well as authenticating users.
YESsafe Token+ is software that runs on a mobile device and supports both one-time-only password and PKI technology. It gathers strong certification, transaction authorization, and other functions under its umbrella, as well as provides complete data protection on a device.
SWIFT—the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications—is a worldwide network that allows financial institutions to send and receive information about financial transactions securely. i-Sprint’s mobile token for SWIFT can be deployed in combination with the SWIFT application for the kind of one-time password authentication used for two-factor authentication.
Counterfeit goods are another area where i-Sprint has found a home for its authentication acumen. Over the next five years, the global anti-counterfeiting packaging market will grow at an annual compound rate of 12.6 percent and reach $168.22 billion for 2023, according to a forecast by IndustryARC. i-Sprint hopes to capitalize on that growth with two products: AccessReal, which protects consumers against counterfeits and secures every product’s digital identity and AccessReal for Print, which does the same for publishers.
“By combining our Digital Identity and Identity of Things solutions, we offer a unique solution to address this convergent trend that will clearly set us apart from our competitors,” i-Sprint’s Ng says.
The company’s investment in authenticating products paid off in April when its technology was included in a new business-to-business application developed by the Singapore Manufacturing Federation. Called SMF SMART, it consolidates orders for overseas food buyers and has features like traceability and authentication of products through QR code and IT security technology.
With its strong product line, i-Sprint attracted the attention of the TEAMSUN Group in China, which bought the IAM company in 2011. According to Gartner, i-Sprint benefited from its acquisition by enabling it to expand into markets in China and Southeast Asia. A growing partner network is also going to brighten i-Sprint’s future, Gartner adds, and will likely help with future customer and revenue growth.
That strong product line has also garnered i-Sprint some honors in recent months. Insight Success magazine chose i-Sprint as one of its “Most Trusted Brands” for 2018. It was also named a technology innovator by the readers of Enterprise Innovation and won nine excellence awards in April from the Info Security Products Guide, a top information security publication.
In addition, i-Sprint was one of a handful of companies to receive the FIDO Alliance’s UAF L1 Certification. The FIDO—Fast IDentity Online—Alliance is an industry group focusing on making strong authentication technologies easier to use and creating alternatives to usernames and passwords. The new certification awarded to i-Sprint’s Universal Authentication Server and YESsafe Mobile Security Suite expands existing FIDO standards to include multi-level security evaluations for authenticators, such as physical security keys and biometrics in mobile devices and PCs.
About i-Sprint
i-Sprint Innovations (i-Sprint) established in the year 2000, is a leading provider in Securing Identity and Transactions in the Cyber World that enables individuals, organizations, and societies to build trust and identity assurance for powering productivity gain through digital identity and identity of things (IDoT).
An ISO27001 and ISO9001 certified company, we are committed to delivering a qualified and secured management system that meets the needs of our clients. i-Sprint’s clients include leading global and regional financial service institutions, government agencies, telecommunications, public utilities, manufacturing, healthcare, education, multi-national corporations and others. Currently, i-Sprint has a direct presence and active authorized partners across Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and the United States.
