AOL secures premium consumer service with two-factor authentication

The world's largest ISP has selected hardware from RSA Security to power its AOL PassCode premium offering. The service offers members a second level of AOL account protection through the use of a RSA keychain-sized device that generates and displays a unique six-digit numeric code every 60 seconds.

"The AOL PassCode Service Offering is a historical event in e-commerce and will pave the way for much needed and more widespread two-factor authentication among US consumers and their service providers," said Avivah Litan, vice president and research director at Gartner.

The service is like adding a deadbolt to AOL accounts by automatically creating a new secondary password every 60 seconds, said Ned Brody, AOL's senior vice president for Premium Services.
"Many of our members use their accounts for business purposes, financial transactions or other sensitive activities. AOL PassCode offers a higher standard of protection through the same state-of-the-art two-factor authentication system used by many financial institutions, technology companies, and other major businesses.
"We're proud to be the first online service to offer this extraordinary supplementary level of security protection to our users."