Claritech Solutions Corp.

I’ve been a huge proponent of two-factor (something you know and something you have/are) authentication for several years now.  I understand that nothing is 100% secure, but I haven’t seen anything better come along. 

I’d like to see more services provide this type of authentication option.  PayPal has a feature called Security Key that allows you to add two-factor authentication to your PayPal account.  LogMeIn has a similar implementation for even their free version of the service.  They allow one-time passwords as well as the use of SecurID cards.

I’ve used PayPal’s Security Key with some success.  I only have two concerns with it:

1. It allows the user to bypass the security key for times when you don’t have your second factor available or the service isn’t working;
2. The service isn’t 100% reliable (at least not the cell phone key).

I applaud PayPal for introducing additional security to their service. A system as important and valuable as PayPal needs to be a leader in online security. 

Unfortunately, when it allows the user to bypass the security key, it effectively voids the two-factor component and just asks the user for one or more things he already knows, thereby making the first factor a little more complicated and the second factor unnecessary.  The reason they do it is because the service isn’t 100% reliable. 

Even so, I’d like PayPal to allow the user to decide whether they want the system to allow an override of the second factor.  In this way, I can force all authentication to go through my security mechanism and, if it isn’t available or not working, I’ll just have to wait until it is.  I think that is a reasonable compromise.

What is “cloud computing”?  After writing my last post, I feel that it is necessary to define my opinion of what cloud computing is. 

The simplest way of describing cloud computing is any web page you use to perform a function or store data. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are part of cloud computing, as are online storage sites such as Mozy.com. 

The most interesting aspect of this migration to cloud computing is that it will radically change the face of information technology, especially within small businesses.   One of the early pioneers is Salesforce.com, who were one of the first to provide online Customer Relationship Management software, making what was previously available only to multi-million dollar corporations, accessible to the sole proprietor for a small monthly fee.

There is very little that can’t be hosted through the cloud today. Virtually any application you can think of is available through an online offering.  I’ll be highlighting some of the the ones that we use on a day-to-day basis in future posts on this site.

The consultants at Claritech have been embracing the concept of Cloud Computing for the last several months, from hosted Exchange and backup solutions to online employee scheduling and document storage.  This site is being developed as a portal to our clients to provide easy access to some of our recommended Cloud service providers.