Mr Siow Wee Loong: We are giving our policyholders the confidence that their information is secure.

NTUC Income has become the first insurer in Singapore to adopt OneKey, a nationwide two-factor authentication (2FA) device for users of online services across different sectors. The device is from Assurity Trusted Solutions, a subsidiary of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the first authentication operator under IDA’s National Authentication Framework (NFA).

“As a financial institution where trust is paramount, NTUC Income is committed to continually boosting our secure-by-design IT infrastructure,” said Mr Siow Wee Loong, Chief Operations Officer, NTUC Income.  “Through our adoption of OneKey, we are giving our policyholders the confidence that their personal and policies information is secure amidst a landscape of ever-changing cyber-security threats."

OneKey enables secure access to policyholder information and records, helping policyholders to keep track of their insurance portfolios.

Traditionally, access to systems uses a single factor – a password or PIN, explained Mr Siow. However, this can be more easily compromised. With 2FA, an additional factor is used as proof of a person’s identity. The OneKey device provides 2FA with its One-Time Password (OTP) function, similar to an SMS sent to the registered mobile phone of the user. “2FA makes it much more difficult for an attacker to impersonate another person and access his or her computer, accounts, or other resources,” said Mr Siow.

NTUC Income serves more than two million policyholders and potentially all of them are able to get the OneKey device. The insurer has invited all its customers to register for the service. Current OneKey users can link their device to NTUC Income through their me@income accounts for immediate use.

• To lower the barrier for service providers (SPs) to come on board NAF's 2FA services, Assurity is currently offering its services to SPs for free. Under the offer, which is available till 11 December 2013, the SPs do not have to pay transaction fees.