Defender 5.6 goes live!

I'm delighted to announce that Defender 5.6 has been released.

The team have made some fantastic new additions to this, the latest version of Defender.

A few of this highlights include:

• Brand new [very shiny] token deployment system that now includes user self-service for both software and hardware tokens.
• Brand new, super easy to use, delegation wizard for administrators to easily set permissions for users and/or groups of users.
• We've taken away the need to request any licensing from Quest by including a trial 90 day license upon installation of 5.6 hopefully making things even easier to install and get up and running.
• You can now download all the Quest software tokens online, saving you time and effort when it comes to deployment.
• We've added new software token types for the Android platform as well as OTP delivery via eMail.
• With the integration we've done with our fellow Quest Authentication Team (QAS), you can now deploy two factor authentication with a 'single click' to almost any Unix or Linux host in your environment.
• Loads more!

Download Defender 5.6 today and let us know what you think!

It's been a while!

It's been some time since my last post, mainly due to the fact it's been a very busy few months on the product development and strategy side of things with a fair amount of travel thrown in for good measure.

The good news is that we're making serious headway with both Defender and QPM from and engineering standpoint and we’ll have even more fantastic new features available for both products later this year. Watch this space! And whilst I’m on the good news, a big thanks to everyone involved for making Defender a knock-out product for us last year! We grew our defender business substantially and really had a fantastic year all round!

From the travel side of things I've been all over the place visiting customers and attending road shows, the most to date being the RSA Security conference in San Francisco. I have to be honest and say I have mixed feelings about the RSA conference because I think the quality of leads is arguable. That said, I did have chance to meet up with a few of our partners which has in turn has resulted in some very beneficial planning ideas for 2010.

The next conference I'll be attending (if the planes in Europe are flying that is) will be the Burton Group Catalyst Conference in Prague next week. I'm looking forward to this conference as a) I like the Burton guys, and b) I get the chance to sit in on a few of the sessions as opposed to presenting them for a change, and there appear to be some good ones on the agenda.

Following on from Prague, I'll be off to Infosec Europe the following week in London. Again, I'm looking forward to this as we have some exciting new stuff to demo at the show. This year we'll be on both the ScriptLogic stand as well as the GrIDsure stand so if you're attending Infosec this year, make sure you stop by and see what we've been up to.

Also don't forget that if you've not yet tried our Defender TFA solution, do so today FOR FREE: http://www.quest.com/landing/?id=1331

Let’s hope the next few months have been as profitable as the last and hope to see you at one of your future events!

5 Stars for Defender 5

Once again, Quest's two-factor authentication solution, Defender, has received a full 5 Stars from SC Magazine!

Defender 5.5 launched

I'm proud to announce that we launched the newest version of Quest Defender yesterday, version 5.5

This new version has a number of exciting new enhancements including:

• Defender integration pack for Quest ActiveRoles Server for Defender user provisioning and administration
• Extended token support, including iToken, GrIDsure and Go-6 hardware tokens
• 64bit platform support for core components
• Improved diagnostics for token failures and verification
• Improved integration with Quest Password Manager
• New Defender ISAPI Agent to add Defender authentication to IIS websites
• Defender Reports enhancements
• Improvements to remote access support

For more information on Defender and to download version 5.5, please visit www.Quest.com/Defender

September update

Well, it's been a good few weeks since my last update and I'm happy to say, for good reason.

Aside from some great time out over the summer period, it's been all hands on deck to get the next versions of Defender, Password Manager, InSync and WebThority ready for release later this year/early next.

The first new product version will be for Defender (v.5.5) scheduled to be released on the 6th of October this year. It has some great new features, a few of which are as follows:

• New token support including iToken, GrIDsure and Go-6 hardware tokens
• Brand new Defender ISAPI Agent to add Defender authentication to IIS websites
• New Defender integration pack for Quest ActiveRoles Server
• Improved integration with Quest Password Manager
• Improved diagnostics and enhanced reporting
• Improvements to remote access support

In addition to the above mentioned release, I will be giving a 1 hour live webcast tomorrow on Defender, so why not register for free and dial in?

To register for the webcast, simply go to the following link: http://whitepapers.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=1139587

Quest Defender meets PowerShell

First off, a big thanks to my good friend and colleague Dmitry Kagansky for creating the first, of hopefully many, PowerShell scripts for Defender!

Taken directly from Dmitry's blog the details are as follows:

1. “Which tokens has which users assigned?”

foreach ($token in (Get-QADObject -IncludeAllProperties -Type "defender-tokenClass"))
{ Write-Output $token.Name $token."defender-tokenUsersDNs" }

2. The same question as number 1. above with the additional requirement to display user attributes as well (so you can no see violation counts etc.)

foreach ($token in (Get-QADObject -IncludeAllProperties -Type "defender-tokenClass"))
{
Write-Output $token.Name;
foreach ($user in $token."defender-TokenUsersDNs" | Where-Object{$token."defender-TokenUsersDNs".Count -gt 0})
{
Get-QADUser -Identity $user -IncludeAllProperties | Format-List samAccountName, "defender-violationCount",
"defender-resetCount", "defender-lockoutTime" ;
}
}

3. “Who can log in based on (direct) group membership allowed on the DAN (defender Access Node?”:

foreach ($dan in Get-QADObject -Type "defender-danClass" -IncludeAllProperties)
{
write-output "---";
Write-Output $dan.Name;
foreach ($ADGroup in Get-QADGroup -Identity $dan."defender-DANMembers")
{
Write-Host $ADGroup;
$ADGroup.Members | Get-QADUser | Format-List sAMAccountName;
}
}

I'm hoping that the simple yet effective examples Dmitry has provided for Defender will encourage others to embrace using PowerShell with Defender.

Which brings me to my next question, when are the other two factor authentication players going to join the PowerShell party? ;)

GrIDsure and Quest Software form strategic partnership

@ Quest we're all about evolving our products to meet our customers needs.

A perfect example of this is the partnership we have just signed with GrIDsure.

Full GrIDsure press release as follows:

GrIDsure, the innovative alternative to PINs and passwords, today announced that it has formed a strategic partnership with Quest Software, Inc., to integrate GrIDsure's technology into the Quest ‘One Identity’ solution portfolio. Quest’s two factor authentication solution, Defender, is the first Quest product that will be enhanced with GrIDsure to extend the product’s existing two-factor authentication capability.

GrIDsure’s solution is based on its groundbreaking yet simple invention that allows users to authenticate themselves by remembering a minimum of a four block sequential pattern on a five by five grid. By integrating GrIDsure’s software-based solution, Quest will be able to offer its customers an enhanced level of scalable security at a very competitive price point, whilst enhancing the user experience.

Quest Defender is a standards-based strong authentication solution built to leverage Microsoft’s Active Directory for administration and management, and the addition of GrIDsure will maintain its level of interoperability for enterprises looking for a cohesive and holistic security strategy. Quest currently has approximately 300,000 users of Defender across many sectors such as healthcare, financial services and public sector. Quest expects Defender with GrIDsure to be commercially available in the summer of 2009.

Jonathan Craymer, Chairman, GrIDsure commented: “GrIDsure is a perfect fit for Quest’s product line and this is a great example of how our technology can become an extra ingredient for an existing product. Our technology has been easily integrated into Quest’s solution to enhance the security of the system whilst being much more cost effective than existing alternatives.”

Stuart Harrison, Product Manager, Quest, commented: “GrIDsure is a completely unique concept and we see great potential in this technology as our customers are always looking for enhanced security without the headache and cost of extra hardware. GrIDsure is very difficult to compromise and is a significant step in right direction for security both in terms of usability and cost effectiveness for the customer and the end user alike.”

More about GrIDsure:

The aim of GrIDsure is simple, to offer everyone an easier and more secure way to protect their own identity and authenticate themselves.

GrIDsure is a new ingredient in the security mix, able to generate 'one-time' codes that are more secure and resilient to 'spyware' threats, creating an extra security layer which can work on its own or alongside all existing or future technologies such as biometrics and PKI.

GrIDsure neatly replaces all fixed passwords, PINs or combinations, on any electronic device or system, ranging from computers and mobiles to the world of physical security. GrIDsure is more secure and more cost effective than traditional hardware-based alternatives, is highly scalable and reduces administrative time to run the system.

GrIDsure was awarded ‘Cool Vendor in Application Security and Authentication 2008' status by Gartner.

Press Contact:

David Atkinson

+44 (0) 207 608 4684

david.atkinson@hotwirepr.com

3rd Party links to this story:

http://www.securitypark.co.uk/security_article.asp?ArticleID=263283

http://www.prosecurityzone.com/Customisation/News/IT_Security/Data_Protection/Quest_One_Identity_to_incorporate_GrIDsure_solution.asp

Quest Defender - Superior Two Factor Authentication

Yes I'm the PM so I understand your natural tendency to think I'd be biased towards my own product.

However, after working for the likes of RSA, Entrust, ActivIdentity and others in the TFA space, I have the experience to say that Quest's TFA solution offers some of the most significant cost savings I've seen to date and in addition, has some of the best technical functionality on any TFA solution I've seen.

If you want to reduce cost, integrate management, increase ease of use and embrace an industry standards based TFA solution, you should look at Defender.

SC Magazine agree and have awarded defender a full 5 stars, something very few (if any) other TFA vendors have achieved.

What are you waiting for? You can test the convenience of Defender without having to install a thing by simply registering for the www.TryDefender.com campaign here: http://www.quest.com/landing/?id=4344