VeriSign Inc. announced that the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Access for Mobile credential is now available for download onto more than 90 popular mobile phone models.

With VIP Access for Mobile, mobile phone users can enjoy strong authentication with a single credential when they log into eBay, PayPal and more than 45 other sites that are part of the VIP Network.

"VeriSign aims to make VIP strong authentication ubiquitous by making it increasingly easier for users and enterprises alike to adopt and use," said Erica Huang, product manager at VeriSign. "VIP Access for Mobile provides VIP Network members with another selling point, marketing tool and competitive differentiator to build trust and confidence with their customers that their personal information is secure as they're navigating through member sites.

"This goes a long way towards engendering customer loyalty, brand recognition and increasing traffic on their Web sites," she said.

VIP Access for Mobile is a free, easy-to-install application that transforms leading mobile phones into strong authentication credentials capable of generating a unique one-time password (OTP) every time a consumer signs on to Web site protected by the VIP Authentication Service.

Users are granted access to their online accounts only after their OTP, username and password are all matched to their identity.

Available today, VIP Access for Mobile can be downloaded for free at https://m.verisign.com

The officially supported carriers and regions include: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon (BlackBerry only) in the U.S.; AirTel in India; and O2 and Vodafone in the UK. VIP Access for Mobile adds two-factor authentication capabilities to various BlackBerry models and popular J2ME enabled phones from Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson (in addition to the previously-announced Apple iPhone ).

Once installed, the application gives mobile users anytime, anywhere access to OTPs for strong authentication generated by a device they already carry.

By implementing two-factor authentication through VeriSign's Security-as-a-Service model, enterprises virtually eliminate the costly IT infrastructure investments once required to deploy proprietary authentication systems.

VeriSign's open standards-based Security-as-a-Service solution also speeds time to market and drives down per user costs. And with mobile phones serving as free VIP credentials, enterprises can scale their potential user base at negligible per-user costs.

Deploying VIP protection enables enterprises to directly address consumers' concerns about online security.

A recent survey found that 86 percent of consumers prefer sites that enable proactive security measures such as two-factor authentication.

Meanwhile, 68 percent said they would like better systems in place to protect their identities, and 41 percent said they would consider new applications offering identity protection, even if that meant extra steps on their part.

"Up until this point, one-time passwords (OTPs) were primarily deployed through separate tokens that users would have to carry around with them," Ms. Huang said. "VIP Access for Mobile adds two-factor authentication capabilities to various phone models."