Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications

    Art (Coviello) by the Numbers

    By
    Paul F. Roberts
    -
    January 2, 2006
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      RSA Security Inc. president and CEO Art Coviello is cruising the company cafeteria on his scooter on a late December morning, looking like a kid on the hunt for a good game of marbles.

      The scooter is a lighthearted touch for Coviello, who has earned a reputation as a tough competitor with a sharp intellect and polished persona in his decade at the helm of RSA and as a spokesperson for TechNet, the technology industry lobbying group.

      But on this day, its a relaxed and happy Coviello, in khakis and a sweater, pushing himself around the cafeteria. “Im getting older, and this place is huge,” Coviello explains. “This helps me get around.”

      Like its CEO, RSA is changing. The Bedford, Mass., company has grown from a $25 million maker of PKI (public-key infrastructure) products to a $300 million company with a range of products that include secure authentication tokens and identity and access management software. As of this month, the company plans to add consumer anti-fraud protection to its list of technologies, with the $145 million acquisition of privately held Cyota, which RSA agreed to purchase in December.

      The ride has not always been easy for Coviello or his company. RSA in December announced it was closing development operations in New York, California and British Columbia to consolidate its engineering operations in facilities in Bedford, as well as in Australia, India and Israel. The company also provoked Wall Streets ire with lackluster fiscal performance in recent quarters and with what many analysts felt was a too-rich offer for Cyota.

      Speaking with eWEEK, Coviello defended RSAs performance, its acquisition of Cyota and the company plans for the future, which he described as common-sense moves to address a fast-changing authentication market.

      “These days, were worrying less about competition than about the fragmentation of the authentication market,” Coviello said.

      RSA marquee customer eTrade Financial Corp. is a perfect example of that fragmentation. The New York-based online brokerage offers SecurID tokens to more than 1 million customers under the terms of a deal announced in March. Customers with more than $50,000 in assets receive tokens for free; however, RSA has shipped only about 30,000 tokens to eTrade customers so far.

      RSA hopes to sell more SecurID tokens into the eTrade customer base, but the Cyota technology gives the company a way to extend basic authentication protections to the masses of users of eTrade and other financial institutions like it, Coviello said.

      “It is becoming increasingly clear to us that no one authentication technology will prevail in the marketplace,” Coviello said.

      Wall Street analysts who question the companys investment in Cyota are looking only at the numbers, according to Coviello. Cyota is expected to bring in about $20 million to $25 million this year, double what it made in 2005. But those numbers dont reveal the strategic benefit to RSA.

      “Were the only one in a position to create a layered application that can keep the [authentication] market from fragmenting,” Coviello said.

      Naftali Bennett, CEO of Cyota, points to Washington Mutual Inc., which last month signed on to Cyotas risk-based two-factor authentication technology, as an example of the kinds of customers that are being drawn to Cyotas technology.

      “If youre a bank and you want to protect your online banking site, you might have 5 million customers,” Bennett said. “Maybe you have a subset of customers, VIPs or corporate customers with $50,000 or $100,000 in their accounts where youll deploy tokens. … You want that flexibility.” Despite grand plans for integrating the Cyota technology, RSA plans to consolidate its consumer business in New York under the guidance of Bennett, with Cyota keeping its existing sales and marketing force, Bennett told eWEEK.

      The anti-fraud and transaction data that Cyota gathers from ISPs and its customers in the online-payments industry is strategic information that RSA can use for any number of service-based offerings, Coviello said.

      In the future, RSA will be increasing its investment in Internet-based services. For example, the company is looking into offering a proxy service for companies that want to deploy one-time password technology for user authentication, Coviello said.

      RSA will have to tread carefully as it works to integrate the Cyota technology with its own product portfolio, said Avivah Litan, an analyst with Gartner Inc., in Stamford, Conn. “Id have to say the initial reaction [to the Cyota purchase] has been pretty negative,” Litan said.

      Fraud detection is a hot area for investment, and there are clear affinities between Cyotas network fraud-detection service and RSAs authentication technology. Still, RSA had to outbid at least one other company, credit rating agency Experian, to obtain Cyota and ended up acquiring technology—such as Cyotas SecureSuite payment-security platform—that doesnt mesh well with the companys other products, Litan said.

      For his part, Coviello says the hand-wringing about declining token prices is “way misunderstood.” RSA has seen prices that enterprises pay for SecurID tokens decrease by only 3 to 5 percent in recent years. And token prices are being driven down by pressure from customers, not competitors, Coviello argues.

      Coviello predicts that the next 12 months will be kinder to RSA, which saw revenues remain flat through much of last year.

      While other CEOs and industry leaders probably better understand the Cyota deal than Wall Street analysts, success is the only way to prove critics wrong, Coviello said. “RSA took a big bet by acquiring Cyota. But in high-tech, if you dont take risks and innovate, you die,” he said.

      Paul F. Roberts

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×