News and information about InCommon Academy offerings

[Dean Woodbeck <>]

Internet2 and Duo Security have announced a partnership to offer an easy-to-use and low-cost two-factor authentication technology to protect information and access to services on college campuses. Duo’s technology and cloud service leverage users’ mobile phones as a second factor of authentication. Internet2's InCommon trust federation will enroll campuses through its trust services.

Information about the program, which is expected to open in late May 2012, is available at www.incommon.org/duo.

“InCommon worked closely with Duo to design a program that we hope changes the perception of second-factor solutions as costly and hard to deploy,” said Jack Suess, chief information officer and vice president for information technology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and chair of the InCommon Steering Committee. “InCommon’s partnership with Duo will also make this low-cost site license well within reach for just about every college or university in the country that wants to expand deployment on campus.”

Colleges and universities that participate in the program can offer their faculty, staff, and students a higher degree of security that comes through the use of a second factor for authentication. Individuals will still supply passwords, but will also use their mobile phone to secure their logins and transactions.

To prove that a login attempt is genuine Duo Security leverages a user’s mobile phone, something almost everyone carries on today’s college campus. When it’s time to log in, the user enters his or her username and password. Then the user receives a notification from Duo via their phone---by smart phone push notification, text message, or phone call. After confirming that the login attempt was intentional the user is logged in. Duo offers a full range of services for those without smart phones, including text messages, phone calls, and hardware tokens (for those without access to a phone).

“We’re thrilled to be working with Internet2 to help us realize our goal of democratizing two-factor authentication,” said Dug Song, CEO of Duo Security. “This partnership will allow millions of students, faculty, and staff to access authentication security that has historically only been available to large businesses with deep pockets and large IT departments.”

The program is open to any higher education institution in the U.S. and takes advantage of InCommon’s trust services. Internet2 members also receive an additional 10 percent discount.

“We recognize that multifactor authentication is a growing risk mitigation resource for the research and higher education community,” said John Krienke, chief operating officer of InCommon. “This is our first step in helping our campus participants achieve the multi-layered security they need at a transformative, site license price.”