It's been four months since Bank of America surprised the industry with its endorsement of PassMark Security <passmarksecurity.com> for multi-factor consumer login (see NB 26 May 2005). Since then, we've talked to a number of industry participants that claim to have a better mousetrap, which they may.

We are not in a position to pass judgment about the technical merits of one system compared to the next; we'll let the market sort that out. And true enough there are weaknesses in the PassMark system as we noted in our Online Banking Report article (OBR 119).

But we still believe PassMark will be one of the survivors as it builds upon its BofA relationship and adds other customers down the road. The first new win is discount broker Scottrade <scottrade.com>, which announced yesterday that it will install PassMark to improve login security for its 1.4 million consumer accounts (see inset above). The broker also becomes the first client to say that they will also add the PassMark identifying image to outbound emails so recipients know the message is legitimate.

Added to the 13+ million BofA accounts, PassMark now boasts that it will be "protecting 15 million users in 2006," a powerful marketing message for the startup. Separately, the company announced v2.0 of its two-factor authentication system.

Off-Topic
Speaking of marketing, you should take a peek at PassMark's website if only to see how it markets to financial institutions (see inset left). The company provides a 4.5-minute comprehensive audio briefing done in Macromedia Breeze along with a series of three short demos showing how the system works for: a) new users; b.) users logging in from a known computer, or; c.) users logging in from an unknown location.

The company's website is remarkably brief and to-the-point, especially for a B2B tech vendor. If you are looking for ideas on how to spruce up your online marketing to businesses, this is a good model.

—JB