"In developing the StarSign family we have created highly secure and flexible identification solutions for company networks. The partnership with SEN will now enable us to offer these solutions to a much wider market," emphasizes Dr. Kai Grassie, head of new business at G&D.

Franz-Josef Nölke, solution line manager at SEN, comments: "The G&D products will extend our security systems integration business and thus complement our current portfolio. Our identity and privacy solutions help customers to implement the latest requirements in secure and reliable unified-communications and IT architectures in an efficient and targeted manner. By tightly integrating the G&D products into the TISA solution architecture, we will be offering our customers many advantages and new applications."

Until now, SEN has primarily used smart cards featuring Siemens' own operating system for use as company ID and signature cards. SEN will now also include StarSign products from G&D in its portfolio. The StarSign product series offers a broad range of security tokens in a variety of form factors and for different operating systems. The tokens are easily incorporated in all standard IT systems and applications and provide reliable electronic proof of identity. The plan is to integrate the StarSign products into SEN's TISA (totally integrated security architecture) solution, which helps companies to align security solutions with their own business models and thus implement them in a secure, efficient and targeted way.

The increasing mobility of employees and the advance of teleworking create a major challenge for modern enterprises in protecting their valuable intellectual property against unauthorized access. Particular emphasis is placed on security issues, and watertight security solutions are required for all systems and applications. Identity management includes areas such as maintenance of identities, rights and guidelines administration, as well as user and access management. Companies must protect themselves against unauthorized access to their corporate networks and applications. Employees must be able to authenticate themselves reliably and without ambiguity from both inside and outside the company.