Have you logged into your bank or investment accounts recently? If so, perhaps you entered your username and password, clicked a button, and then you were asked to enter a PIN or password that was emailed or texted to you. Do you work with sensitive information? Logging into the database from your desktop computer or laptop might involve not only your username and password but also a separate app on your smartphone or tablet. You enter your username and password; then a push notification appears in the authentication app asking you to accept or deny access. These scenarios are examples of out of band authentication.
Out of band authentication is a process that uses a different communication channel for authentication than the primary communication channel that the user is trying to access, making it more difficult for hackers to compromise the authentication process. However, this process is not foolproof. The 2018 Reddit.com data breach exposed internal data as well as employee and user email addresses and passwords. Reddit.com used 2-factor authentication via text message. According to Verizon’s 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, worldwide, more than 43,000 data breaches involving stolen customer credentials occurred in 2017, 91% targeted banking institutions.
Today’s market size shows the amount spent on out of band authentication software and services for 2018 and projected for 2023. Because of the growing threat of ever more sophisticated cyber attacks and increasingly stringent information security regulations, this market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.5%. The demand for cloud-based out of band authentication solutions is expected to grow at an even higher rate. Several companies comprise this market including Gemalto, CA Technologies, Symantec, Ping Identity, and RSA Security, to name a few.
Geographic reference: WorldYear: 2018 and 2023
Market size: $533 million and $1.53 billion, respectively
Sources: “The OOBA Market Size is Expected to Grow From USD 533 Million in 2018 to USD 1,532 Million by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 23.5%,” PRNewswire, March 12, 2019 available online here; “Out of Band Authentication (OOB),” The Secret Security Wiki available online here; “Reddit Breach Highlights Limits of SMS-Based Authentication,” Krebs on Security, August 1, 2018 available online here; 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, 11th Edition, Verizon, April 2018 available online here.
Image source: William Iven, “office-business-accountant-620822,” Pixabay, February 3, 2015 available online here.