Success stories

SA mobile security firm up for award

29 October 2012

South African mobile security company Entersekt has been selected as one of 36 international finalists for the 2012 Sesames awards, which reward the best technological innovations in smart cards, digital security, identification, secure transactions and contactless systems.

Entersekt's 'interactive transaction authentication' product was selected for the IT security category and was chosen from 475 entrants.

Mobile banking authentication

It is a solution for the banking sector and allows customers use their mobile devices, in an interactive secure session, to authenticate themselves to the bank's electronic services.

It enables each transaction to be digitally signed, without a one-time password.

"The company's solution allows institutions to uniquely identify each phone in the world - not by using a mobile number which they have no control over, but by trusting a mathematically unique X.509 digital certificate that is automatically installed on the mobile device by the Entersekt CA," Entersekt's Christiaan Brand said in a statement.

"Banks can leverage off the trust that is provided by this unique identifier, and can use this technology to digitally sign individual financial transactions using the private key that's kept confidentially on the phone."

Sesames Awards

The Sesames Awards will form part of the annual Cartes trade show, which will be held in Paris from 6 to 8 November.

A panel of 38 jury members, recognised as experts in their respective fields, will decide on the winners, who will be announced on the eve of the exhibition on 5 November.

"The Sesames Awards are a unique opportunity for the candidates to showcase their creativity and their achievements to 20 000 professionals and 200 journalists attending from over 140 countries, all on the lookout for new products in this market," the Cartes trade show says on its website.

There are 10 categories in the awards: hardware, software, identification, IT security, transportation, banking, authentication, mobility, e-transactions, discovery and maufacturing and tests.

SAinfo reporter



	Cellphones are increasingly being used for social networking, instant messaging, mobile banking and accessing the internet to buy products and services (Image: Microsoft)