A Kiwi executive with RSA Security, Mark Pullen, says New Zealand's remote geography gives a false sense of security to organisations.

He says they wouldn't rely on password-based access to their computer systems if they understood the risks.

Sydney-based Australasian business development manager Mr Pullen says his firm's technology should be "mandatory" for people accessing corporate networks and applications over the Internet.

RSA Security's top-selling product in New Zealand is SecurID, a hardware and software device designed to authenticate people's identity online and mitigate the risks caused by impostors logging on to networks using stolen or guessed passwords.

Customers are provided with calculator-like chip-based devices to distribute to staff or customers entitled to access their network or Web-based applications.

Instead of logging on to company systems direct, users key their log-in password into the device which uses an algorithm to produce a seemingly random numeric code used in place of the password itself to access systems.

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Related items

• Security Database - Company: RSA Security (12 May 2002)