Proton Bank Deploys PhoneFactor in Greece

Proton Bank S.A., a financial institution serving private and corporate clients throughout Greece, has selected and implemented PhoneFactor’s (News - Alert) multi-factor authentication service to add a critical layer of security to Proton’s eBanking application.

PhoneFactor’s out-of-band authentication service is trusted by leading banks worldwide to protect millions of online banking users.

“The service works perfectly for our clients,” said Fotis Mitsakis, CTO of Proton Bank, in a statement.

“The user experience is fully localized. So when a user receives an authentication call, the messages are all in Greek. It’s quick – the user’s phone rings within a few seconds, and the caller ID displays a local number,” said Mitsakis.

The real-time protection and out-of-band architecture offered by PhoneFactor were some of the reasons behind Proton Bank selecting it.

Moreover, in addition to securing online banking, PhoneFactor also offers multi-factor authentication services to secure employee remote access and cloud services for enterprises worldwide.

“The level of security is invaluable, but the service is also much easier than a token solution for both our customers and our IT department,” added Mitsakis.

“In today’s global economy, fraud knows no borders,” said Steve Dispensa (News - Alert), CTO and co-founder of PhoneFactor.

“We are pleased to work with institutions like Proton Bank who are leading the fight against online banking fraud abroad. Other banks worldwide are following suit as out-of-band authentication becomes widely recognized as a best practice in protecting online banking customers from increasingly virulent and sophisticated threats,” said Dispensa.

TMCnet recently reported that PhoneFactor, a provider of phone-based multi-factor authentication, announced the launch of a program that can help organizations using SecurID token products which were affected by the recent breach atRSA.

The Token Replacement Program from PhoneFactor will provide credits of up to $5 per token besides providing special assistance for companies migrating to PhoneFactor’s phone-based two-factor platform. This program will continue until June 30, 2011, said company officials.