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Symantec and VeriSign team up to push better authentication

Two of the information security market's biggest vendors announced this week that they are teaming up to fight identity theft and fraud.

Executives for Symantec and VeriSign announced that Symantec plans to offer support for the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Authentication Service to its Norton customers.

The VIP Authentication Service will give these customers the ability to use one-time passwords to protect their online identity. It will allow them to use one credential across multiple member websites, including Yahoo, PayPal, eBay and Charles Schwab.

Both companies hope that the partnership will help normalize the use of stronger authentication among consumers, a practice which is far from standard practice today. Most consumers today must manage numerous credentials through their dealings with financial institutions and online retailers, many of which still rely on single-factor authentication.

According to Judy Lin, executive vice president and general manager for VeriSign Security Services, the partnership made sense due to the market share and history of both companies.

"VeriSign has a long history of protecting and securing digital identities on the internet, and Symantec has a long history of protecting consumers and their digital information," she said. "With a layered security approach, across users, desktops and the network infrastructure, VeriSign and Symantec can enable the strongest security with the most convenience."

The service will be integrated into future releases of its Norton security software as a part of Symantec's newly-announced Security 2.0 strategy.

Click here to email Ericka Chickowski.

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