Redwood City, CA, April 12, 2006 – Authernative, Inc., the developer of innovative user authentication and identity management technologies, has raised $2.5 Million in Series A financing from venture capital and distinguished private investors including First Round Capital, WS Investments, Dave Duffield, Peggy Taylor, Ron Conway, and Scott Seligman.

As cyber crime continues to proliferate, hindering e-business confidence and fueling regulatory pressure, organizations are compelled to protect their digital assets and users from unauthorized access, identity theft & transaction risks with stronger forms of authentication than conventional passwords. Correspondingly, new challenges arise as user authentication and identity management requirements continue to expand beyond enterprise constituencies to the mass consumer level, further widening the security, usability, and affordability gap between password-only systems and advanced authentication solutions. Authernative’s innovative user authentication & identity management technologies enable organizations to meet these challenges with advanced forms of authentication that are less costly and easier to use, deploy, and support than the currently available strong authentication offerings.

AuthGuard®, the company’s user authentication product, provides a flexible multi-level security authentication console, which offers a range of patent-pending multi-factor, multi-channel, and mutual authentication technologies to best address the security and usability requirements of users. The authentication solution is further complemented by PassEnabler™, an integrated modularized secure authorization, administration, and auditing suite providing a complete off-the-shelf identity management solution.

Authernative innovative solutions can bring significant value to consumer service providers, enterprises, application service providers, and small & medium businesses seeking to:

• provide personalized levels of security and ease of use specific to the user’s needs or company’s policies without any devices or downloads
  

• offer the similar high level of security found in hardware-based authenticators while preserving the cost-effective electronic mass deployment and the ease of use, typical of passwords
  

• provide multiple authentication options ranging from passwords to advanced authentication methods
  

• empower users with visible and tangible authentication security giving them control and reassurance that their identity and transactions are secure
  

• protect against Phishing, Trojans, Man-in-the-Middle and other types of intruding attacks at credential’s input devices, communication lines, and back-end user stores
  

• provide advanced auditing, administration, and user self-service capabilities to address compliance with mandatory regulations including FFIEC, GLBA, SOX, HIPAA, and the upcoming Specter-Leahy Bill, Financial Data Protection Act, and Data Accountability and Trust Act

The funds will go toward building awareness and expanding sales of AuthGuard® and PassEnabler™ solutions in the market.

About Authernative:

Authernative develops, markets, and sells innovative patent-pending software security solutions offering comprehensive user identity and access management (I&AM) capabilities over electronic networks including strong authentication, authorization, administration, and auditing (AAAA). The company’s products are used to prevent unauthorized access to confidential data, identity theft, and financial loss. They allow businesses to lower the cost of providing, deploying, and managing strong user authentication and authorization capabilities for enabling e-commerce, regulatory compliance, secure business communications and transactions with customers, suppliers, and employees.