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Intercede, the producer of MyID,announced a partnership with NitroDesk the global provider of the No. 1 Exchange ActiveSync™ email solution for mobile devices, to provide secure email solutions on iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad, that are compatible with PIV cards.
Building on NitroDesk’s market-leading email client, TouchDownTM, and Intercede’s proven track record in smart card and credential management, the special MyID PIV-enabled edition of TouchDown offers the ability to easily exchange signed and encrypted emails protected by keys and certificates held securely on a PIN-protected PIV smart card.
Standards based smart cards such as PIV, PIV-I, CIV and TWIC, have become the gold standard of security in U.S. federal government and associated organizations, providing strong authentication of an individual when accessing corporate resources such as buildings or computer systems. While these cards work well on desktop computers equipped with smart card readers, the same security and ease of use benefits are more difficult to deliver on mobile devices, where the siloed approach of smartphone apps does not naturally fit with smart card usage.
The Intercede and NitroDesk partnership makes extending the benefits of PIV card security to mobile devices easy. The MyID mobile credential management libraries embedded into the NitroDesk TouchDown email client make it credential aware, allowing smart cards to be used in a similar manner as on a desktop computer. This enables organizations to provide secure yet simple communications solutions both in the office and in the field using a combination of COTS product and readily available consumer electronic devices.
“Email is the primary method of information sharing for two thirds of organizations but using a non-secured mechanism leaves them open to a range of threats,” said Richard Parris, CEO of Intercede. “The bring your own device (BYOD) trend and increased use of consumer devices means securing mobile communications is a challenge many of our customers are looking to solve. By partnering with NitroDesk, our shared expertise delivers a cost-effective, easy-to-use and highly secure solution for mobile communications, enabling organizations to benefit from both improved security and increased efficiency.”
Commenting on the partnership, Ron Goins, Chief Operating Officer at NitroDesk said: “The integration of the Intercede MyID technology with the TouchDown client allows government and enterprise customers to maintain the security of their sensitive data while ensuring compliance with their organization’s credential management and security policies in a BYOD environment. This is a huge win for those who must meet these requirements, as well as their IT organizations that need to manage the devices and data security.”