IAMs Integration Helps Build Case for Nymi Band Authentication

Nymi is now promoting its eponymous Nymi Band wearable device to Identity and Access Management system (IAMs) providers, with one such client already trialing the solution.

The Nymi Band is, of course, a wristband device that offers persistent authentication based on a user’s unique cardiac biometrics – data associated with the pulse patterns found on the wrist. While Nymi recently showed off the potential mPayment applications of the device at this year’s RSA Conference, its passive authentication capability also makes it an apt solution for access control applications.

To that end, IAMs provider Ping Identity recently tested the device by integrating it into its PingID system via Nymi’s free SDK. The trial saw users’ enterprise application access control governed by Nymi authentication, which matched users’ ECG biometrics with the help of a smartphone companion app. Writing about the trial on its website, Ping asserted that its “future vision for adaptive authentication is one where usability doesn’t need to be sacrificed for security,” and asserted that “[l]everaging the capabilities of devices for privacy-respecting biometric authentication, as standardized by FIDO and implemented through the Nymi Band, will certainly help make that future a reality.”

It’s a strong endorsement for the Nymi Band, and along with other integrations this use case could help to further popularize the concept as organizations look for technologies that can offer robust security for access control while remaining convenient to use.