Australia's BankWest has begun issuing RSA Security's SecurID two-factor authentication tokens to its online business banking customers.
The tokens, which are small enough to attach to a keyring, generate a unique one-time-password (OTP) every 60 seconds which is displayed on a digital readout window. Customers will use the OTP along with their regular PIN to access online business banking services.
BankWest says it will provide all its online business banking customers with RSA SecurID hardware authenticators by the end of the year.
RSA's SecurID system is powered by its authentication manager software, which the vendor claims can support millions of users and hundreds of simultaneous applications.
Australian banks are introducing an industry standard for two-factor authentication for verifying online banking customers later this year. Each bank is free to choose its own method of secondary identification, which will be used in addition to passwords.
Last week Westpac said it was exploring the application of fingerprint identification technology for Web banking, while National Australia Bank said earlier this year that it was going to introduce SMS-based two-factor authentication to its online customers.