News from the Wire

Nexcess, Human Element bring two-factor authentication to Magento

Monday, April 20, 2015 — 12:22:28 (EDT)

Southfield, Mich., April 20, 2015 -- Nexcess, a leading provider of performance optimized Magento eCommerce hosting and a Magento Platinum Hosting Partner, in collaboration with Magento development agency Human Element, have announced the release of the Sentry Magento plugin, which will bring powerful two-factor authentication capabilities to the world’s most popular eCommerce solution.

Out-of-the-box, Magento provides strong password protection mechanisms, but salting and hashing password databases isn’t enough if Magento administrators don’t choose sufficiently strong passwords and keep them safe. Evidence shows that having a username and password as the sole authentication mechanism is simply no longer sufficient.

Nexcess and Human Element’s Sentry plugin will integrate Magento with the most popular two-factor authentication service providers, including Google Authenticator and Duo Security, providing an extra level of protection and making it orders of magnitude more difficult for criminals to breach Magento stores.

"As a Magento hosting company, we go to great lengths to keep our client’s data and their customer’s data safe, but the problem of weak passwords is not one that we can solve simply with better server-side security," commented Chris Wells, President and CEO of Nexcess, "The best way to make passwords safe is to add an extra authentication factor that connects identity with an object in the possession of users. The Sentry plugin will empower Magento eCommerce retailers to keep themselves and their customers safe."

Passwords can be considered one factor of authentication: something that the user knows. Sentry will add a second factor: something the user has. Leveraging the ubiquity of smart phones and other mobile devices, Sentry’s two-factor authentication integrations will require that users enter a time-limited code generated by an app. Without access to the authenticated devices, malicious third parties will not be able to access Magento's back end, even if they are able to guess the password.

To find out more, look for Nexcess or Human Element at Magento Imagine this week in Las Vegas, register for a webinar on April 29, 2015 at 2 p.m. EST, and get your copy of the plugin at www.nexcess.net/resources/plugins/sentry-two-factor-authentication-magento .

About Nexcess

Nexcess is a Southfield, Michigan-based managed Magento hosting company founded in 2000, with data centers distributed throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. Nexcess offers a variety of Magento hosting services ranging from entry-level packages to custom clustered/complex hosting configurations, with an emphasis on achieving maximum performance for high-profile stores. For more information, visit www.nexcess.net .

About Human Element

With locations in Ann Arbor and Portland, Human Element works to develop web solutions for high transaction websites using the Magento Enterprise eCommerce platform. Human Element is one of the fastest growing custom application development agencies in Michigan. They are Magento-certified Silver Solutions Partners, and their work has enabled them to explore the vast functionality of the Magento ecosystem, acquiring a broad range of experience developing custom extensions. Custom development work has included Magento integrations with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, (ESP) email service providers, payment gateways, and other data systems. Visit www.human-element.com or call 734.545.8017 to learn more.

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Source: Company press release.