OTCBB: DVNTF
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:DIVERSINET LAUNCHES MOBISECURE TOKENS FOR PCs
Soft Token for Laptops and Desktops Powers Mass-Market
OATH-compliant Strong Authentication, Reducing the Need for Costly
and Difficult to Deploy Hard Tokens
TORONTO, Canada, June 28, 2005 – Diversinet Corp. (OTCBB:
DVNTF), a leading provider of mobile device security and authentication
solutions for the mobile data ecosystem, today announced its line of
MobiSecure PC Tokens.
MobiSecure PC Tokens are the industry’s first OATH-compliant Microsoft
Windows-based soft tokens specifically designed for large-scale One Time
Password (OTP) strong authentication deployments by banks, on-line
commerce vendors and service providers. With the addition of MobiSecure
PC Tokens to our family of authentication solutions, Diversinet believes
its addressable market exceeds 2 billion potential users world-wide.
MobiSecure PC Tokens allows users to easily access different services
such as home banking, WiFi hotspots, or on-line communities.
“MobiSecure PC Tokens are strategic for us in that it broadens our
addressable market to all PC users even if they do not carry a mobile
device,” stated Michael O’Farrell, Diversinet’s Chief Marketing Officer.
“The personal computer is the most common device for conducting on-line
transactions, so it’s essential that the user’s identity be secured
against the ever-growing number of threats such as hacking, phishing and
identity theft.”
Financial institutions are incurring significant costs from identity
theft and malware. According to IDC, U.S. and international financial
institutions lost up to $400 million from phishing in 2004, and they are
suffering even more from the erosion in customer trust that identify
theft and malware incidents are causing. Identity theft has been taking
its toll on banks and their customer relationships. In a recent survey
of 1,000 U.S. consumers conducted in January 2005, IDC found that close
to 60% expressed concern about identity theft, and close to 6% admitted
to switching banks to reduce their risk of becoming a victim of identity
theft.
Traditional strong authentication solutions have relied on the use of
proprietary hardware devices such as hard tokens, USB tokens or smart
cards to provide one-time-password credentials for on-line login access.
These systems work well, but the cost and complexity of deployment have
prevented widespread consumer adoption. Protecting consumers will
require the deployment of millions of such units, and the cost of
purchasing, distributing and managing that amount of hardware will drive
operational and maintenance costs to unacceptable levels. Diversinet’s
MobiSecure PC Tokens are ideal for organizations that want the strength,
convenience and simplified deployment of dynamic password solutions
without the overhead and cost of hardware distribution.
Diversinet’s MobiSecure PC Tokens are a cost-effective, Microsoft
Windows-based solution for strong authentication using OATH-compliant
One-Time-Passwords. The PC tokens come in a variety of flavors depending
on the type of user application to be supported:
-
Browser Plug-in: The MobiSecure PC soft token can
work directly with the web browser, integrating seamlessly with a
web application to provide OTP authentication as part of the user
login process. Because the web application obtains the OTP directly
from the MobiSecure soft token loaded on the PC, the user does not
have to enter the OTP value into the login screen. This process is
much simpler than traditional hardware token use where the PC user
has to manually enter the OTP on the log-in screen.
-
Standalone Token: The MobiSecure PC soft token
can run as an application that displays an OTP value upon request
from the user. This is similar to the traditional hardware token
model. An optional password can be required for accessing the soft
token.
-
API Token: Any PC application can be modified to
directly obtain an OTP from the MobiSecure soft token. A simple API
lets application providers to take advantage of standards-based OTP
functionality to strengthen the user authentication process for
their PC applications.
MobiSecure PC Tokens will be available for commercial
release starting in the Fall of 2005. To be considered for
pre-commercial pilot programs, please contact us at
www.diversinet.com.
# # #
About Diversinet (OTCBB: DVNTF)
Diversinet is a leading provider of mobile device security and
authentication solutions for the mobile data ecosystem. Diversinet
products and services allow users to protect their identity, data and
device for personal communications and commercial transactions. The
Diversinet MobiSecure suite of mobile tokens and MobiSecure
Authentication Service Center enable application providers, mobile
network operators and security service providers to rapidly develop,
deploy and manage secure mobile data services for the over 1.5 billion
mobile device users worldwide. MobiSecure is the industry’s first open
mobile security platform to support OATH-Compliant strong authentication
on mobile devices and networks. For more information about the
initiative for Open AuTHentication (OATH) visit
www.openauthentication.org. Connect with Diversinet Corp. at
www.diversinet.com.
The Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for
forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this
press release (as well as information included in oral statements or
other written statements made or to be made by the company) contains
statements that are forward-looking, such as statements relating to
anticipated future revenues of the company and success of current
product offerings. Such forward-looking information involves
important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect
anticipated results in the future and, accordingly, such results may
differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking
statements made by or on behalf of the company. For a description of
additional risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company's
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact:
Michael J. O'Farrell
Chief Marketing Officer
Diversinet Corp.
416-756-2324 ext. 236
mofarrell@diversinet.com
Gary Hilson
Senior Account Consultant
Sacke & Associates Inc.
416-493-5723 ext. 203
garyh@sackepr.com
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