WatchGuard Technologies has announced that its AuthPoint multifactor authentication (MFA) solution has earned a Performance Verified certification from Miercom, an independent testing and certification service. Evaluating AuthPoint against competing solutions across a wide range of categories, Miercom found that WatchGuard's MFA solution offered greater functionality at a lower cost, easier setup and administration, and a better end-user experience.

"With threat actors having easy access to billions of stolen and leaked credentials online and the increasing sophistication of phishing attacks, password-only authentication offers inadequate protection in today's security environment," said Tracy Hillstrom, vice president of content strategy and experience, WatchGuard Technologies. "MFA is now essential for organizations to verify the identity of workers wherever they are, especially with the shift to remote and hybrid work."

Miercom evaluated MFA solutions offered by WatchGuard, Cisco Duo and Microsoft Azure across 24 different criteria. The analysis found that AuthPoint provides a complete set of features for one affordable price (including many features that its competitors charge extra for), while beating both alternatives in ease of use and functionality for both administrators and end users, offering exceptional overall ROI. Miercom noted that AuthPoint:

• Provides the simplest single sign-on (SSO) setup and usage for both administrators and users
• Offers a seamless and intuitive user experience, making it ideal for first-time users
• Includes modern features such as risk-based authentication, which provides enhanced secure access capabilities with the use of customizable risk policies
• Is the only solution among those tested that offers footprint-based migration through the cloud across all platforms on activation, providing the highest level of security against hackers
• Offers high value and ROI with its combination of a rich feature set, affordable one-time purchase price and ease of use

Overall, Miercom found that WatchGuard AuthPoint "proved competitively superior in authentication provisioning, deployment and security testing," noting that "Cisco and Microsoft do not offer nearly the same amount of functionality, ease of use or intuitive interface as WatchGuard."