A Passport To SecurityA Passport To Security

Trusted Network Technologies Inc., a security software startup, believes "passports" will improve IT security. The vendor last week rolled out Identity, an application that provides user access control by embedding a two-piece identity passport--one linked to the user and the other to the system--into each session request.

Identity hides protected systems and information from prying eyes, company founder and CEO Stephen Gant says. "You just can't see anything" if you're not authorized, he says. It runs with host software that inserts the authentication mechanisms and a secured in-line Linux appliance that enforces access policies established by the customer.

Gant says the idea is to place passports with the actual packets on the network. If a packet doesn't have the appropriate passport, it's not even going to get to the protected resources. Independent security experts have analyzed network traffic protected by Identity, and, so far, the app has kept them in the dark. "They haven't been able to find where the information is, let alone that anything [protected] is out there on the network," Gant says.

A security executive at a financial-services software development firm, who declined to be identified, is looking at the software to see if it can provide more protection for his network. "I'm a little incredulous about startups. They have to have a valid idea or technology for me to get enthused about them," he says. "But this really seems to do what they say it does. It acts as a guard."

"It will interest people who have critical information they want to keep separate and secret," says Dan Keldsen, senior analyst and director of IS for Delphi Group. "People in defense, financial services, and companies with valuable R&D--for those situations, this concept fits right in there."

Identity began shipping last week; an updated version is expected later this summer. The price for about 25 users and a single appliance ranges from $10,000 to $15,000.