Configuring strong authentication with smart cards

Smart card authentication is appropriate for deployments where security requirements dictate stronger authentication than using a HCL Compass user name and password.

Authentication through a user certificate can be more secure than using a user name and password because it enables two-factor authentication. For example, you can configure smart card authentication for HCL Compass Web such that the user must use a smart card and a PIN to gain access to the web application. As another example, you can store a user certificate on a smart card that requires fingerprint biometric tests to access the certificate.

This section presents the high-level architecture of the smart-card-authentication feature in HCL Compass Web and describes the associated server configuration tasks.