HOPKINTON, Mass. -- EMC Corp. is continuing to broaden its online security offerings, this time acquiring Verid Inc., a Florida-based provider of knowledge-based authentication solutions to financial institutions, telecoms and retailers.
EMC said the acquisition of privately held Verid is complete and no other transaction details would be announced.
Fort Lauderdale-based Verid (www.verid.com) will be integrated into EMC's RSA division, which also includes the worldwide anti-phishing and fraud detection network of the former Cyota Inc. and the image-based online banking authentication tools of PassMark, deals closed in 2006 for $145 million and $44.7 million, respectively.
"The acquisition of Verid both builds upon our existing set of authentication methods and--significantly--extends our capabilities into the preliminary vetting and verification stages of new user relationships in a variety of markets." said Christopher Young, vice president for consumer and access solutions at RSA (www.rsasecurity.com).
More than 100 million end users are now under contract to RSA clients around the world, the company says.
The deal combines RSA's Risk Analytics and Verid's Question Intelligence Analytics. "This solution will be engineered to allow organizations to adjust the questions' level of difficulty in real-time during the knowledge-based authentication process, according to the risk of each specific activity. This will permit businesses to strike the right balance between security and usability, and further equip them to acquire more new customers without the need for excessive or onerous verification measures," EMC says.
Verid will function as a separate product line/services offering within RSA at least through 2007, the company says. Kevin Watson, CEO of Verid when
the acquisition closed on June 1, will continue to lead the business, reporting
to Young.
