Google Docs – It just makes Sense – As long as it’s Secure

Written on February 11, 2010 at 10:10 pm, by Garret

Please join us for the webinar securing Google Docs and Google Apps on Thursday, February 18th at 10am PST.

Google Docs is just a technology that makes sense.

•  Web Based Document Collaboration
•  Shared Versioning
•  On-Line Editing
•  Multi-OS Support
•  Multi-Browser Support

Image #1: Google Docs is a easy way to store and share documents.

Now all that is needed is a way to securely authenticate users who need access to the files.

The answer is SecureAuth for Google Docs.    (See Image #2)

Image #2 - SecureAuth conducts a browser based 2-Factor, 2-Way authentication before allowing access to Google Docs.

SecureAuth for Google Docs conducts an internet-secure 2-Factor authentication that insures:
•  The User is the user
•  The Authentication Server is Authentication server

The 2nd part is important and needs to be explained.

Most authentication solutions only validate the user.  They don’t validate that the user is sending his/her  credentials first to a phishing site.    (This is what is defined by Man-in-the-middle, DNS and Kaminsky attacks – See Image #3)  SecureAuth utilizes secure cryptographic authentication to insure a secure authentication has occurred.  (See whitepaper on SecureAuth authentication.)

Image #3 - SecureAuth conducts a bilateral, 2-Factor authentication to protect against phishing and MITM attacks

Just as importantly, SecureAuth utilizes the information that is stored in the enterprise datastore.   This means no synching of passwords and authentication credentials for the enterprise.   This is an enormous cost saving for the enterprise.

The combination of SecureAuth and Google Docs is amazingly powerful.   The combination of leveraging the  native datastore for user authentication, such as Active Directory, and then allowing all of these users up to 1GB of shared file store – on a shared resource, the Google Docs resource – is a no brainer.  (See Image #4)

Image #4 - SecureAuth utilizes the native datastore (Active Directory, etc) to conduct a secure user authenticaiton, before crypotographally passing the identity to Google Apps.

This saves enormous amount of work for setting up portals, servers and file shares.   Google Docs solves these issues.   And SecureAuth insures that the authentication is conducted securely, without the need to migrate and synchronize authentication credentials.

Please join us for the webinar securing Google Docs and Google Apps on Thursday, February 18th at 10am PST.