Unicon Partners with Vasco on Higher Ed Data Security

Two companies have teamed up to sell two-factor authentication tools into the higher education market. Unicon, an IT consulting services provider that specializes in open source for the education market, has begun selling software developed by Vasco Data Security, which specializes in creating strong authentication and e-signature applications for the financial sector, enterprise security, e-commerce, and e-government.

Vasco's two-factor authentication programs replace personal passwords with constantly changing passwords that can't be reused at the next login. This practice reduces the risk of a user falling victim to phishing scams, keylogger viruses, and plain password theft. Two-factor authentication requires the user to provide at least two pieces of information in order to gain access to services.

"Vasco Data Security is great for the industry and will benefit institutions by providing security for the online campus," said John Blakley, CEO of Unicon. "Unicon specializes in authentication solutions, and working with Vasco will allow us to help our customers meet their institution's increasing concerns surrounding identity management."

Unicon also recently announced support for Shibboleth to provide secure, federated, single sign-on authentication for enterprise applications and platforms. This open source project provides a trusted way for an application to authenticate a user from inside or outside the organization. Shibboleth is a project of the Internet2 Middleware Initiative. All development work and fixes performed by the team for individual institutions are contributed back and shared with the Shibboleth community.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • open laptop in a college classroom with holographic AI icons like a brain and data charts rising from the screen

    4 Ways Universities Are Using Google AI Tools for Learning and Administration

    In a recent blog post, Google shared an array of education customer stories, showcasing ways institutions are using AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM to transform both learning and administrative tasks.

  • illustration of a human head with a glowing neural network in the brain, connected to tech icons on a cool blue-gray background

    Meta Launches Stand-Alone AI App

    Meta Platforms has introduced a stand-alone artificial intelligence app built on its proprietary Llama 4 model, intensifying the competitive race in generative AI alongside OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI.

  • three main icons—a cloud, a user profile, and a padlock—connected by circuit lines on a blue abstract background

    Report: Identity Has Become a Critical Security Perimeter for Cloud Services

    A new threat landscape report points to new cloud vulnerabilities. According to the 2025 Global Threat Landscape Report from Fortinet, while misconfigured cloud storage buckets were once a prime vector for cybersecurity exploits, other cloud missteps are gaining focus.

  • Stylized illustration showing cybersecurity elements like shields, padlocks, and secure cloud icons on a neutral, minimalist digital background

    Microsoft Announces Security Advancements

    Microsoft has announced major security advancements across its product portfolio and practices. The work is part of its Secure Future Initiative (SFI), a multiyear cybersecurity transformation the company calls the largest engineering project in company history.