SafeNet Awarded Key Role in Government Backed Scheme to Help People Start Businesses from Home
London, 1 September 2004 – Information security company SafeNet is playing a key role in a Government backed project to help people with business ideas start up from home. The scheme, which has to date been piloted in the Luton & Dunstable area, enters its £200,000 implementation phase in September.
The idea is the brainchild of the Luton & Dunstable Innovation Centre, a joint initiative between the University of Luton, Luton Borough Council, Business Link and the Luton & Dunstable Partnership, which houses around 56 small, mostly technology-related businesses on four sites close to the University. The project is being backed by the DTI Phoenix fund, which aims to help an increasing number of people who want to be able to access the Innovation Centre facilities but who, for various reasons, need to work from home.
“At the outset of this project we quickly realised we were going to need some means of authenticating the people trying to access our facilities remotely,” says Mike Anstey, Innovation Centre manager. “SafeNet’s iKey proved an ideal solution to the problem.”
The Innovation Centre programmed iKey with their web address and sent it out to subscribers as part of a start-up pack. When installed on a member’s computer it will automatically log them in. Software residing on the Innovation Centre website interrogates everyone’s iKey. It extracts their ID information and checks it against the list of project members.
“iKey also fitted in with our concept of having a virtual Innovation Centre online whereby members visiting the site would see a virtual office building,” adds Anstey. “The idea is that different people have access to different parts of the building and they use iKey as a way to open doors into the areas they are authorised to go. Eventually we want people to be able to carry out financial transactions and encrypted communications between businesses. iKey makes all of this possible.”
SafeNet’s iKey is a USB-based two-factor authentication token that provides a very cost-effective and easy-to-use control for multiple applications and network services, such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and manages Intranet, Extranet, and Internet access. The iKey token consists of a microprocessor with a USB controller and memory all within a device small enough to store on a key chain.
More information on the Luton & Dunstable Innovation Centre is available at www.innovationcentre.co.uk/projects.
About SafeNet, Inc.
SafeNet is a global leader in information security. Founded more than 20 years ago, the company provides complete security utilising its encryption technologies to protect communications, intellectual property and digital identities, and offers a full spectrum of products including hardware, software, and chips. ARM, Bank of America, Cisco Systems, the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, Adobe, Samsung, Texas Instruments, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and scores of other customers entrust their security needs to SafeNet. For more information, visit www.safenet-inc.com.