Nexcess, a Southfield, Michigan-based managed hosting company, in collaboration with Magento development agency Human Element, have announced the release of their Sentry Magento plugin, which will bring two-factor authentication capabilities to one of the world’s most popular eCommerce solutions.
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, according to Nexcess. The company states that having a username and password as the sole authentication mechanism is simply no longer sufficient.
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.
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 more difficult for criminals to breach Magento stores.
Server-side Security
“As a Magento managed 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,” said 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.”
Founded in 2000, Nexcess has data centers distributed throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia.
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 claims to be one of the fastest growing custom application development agencies in Michigan.
