OATH, the initiative for Open AuTHentication, today announced that eight new security companies and two major financial institutions have joined the organization in the last 30 days.  OATH is a consortium of leading device, platform and application companies, and end user customers of authentication technologies.

The new security firms include: The Apache Software Foundation, Encentuate, Identia, Iovation, Inc., Portwise, Renesas Technology America, TriCipher, Safehaus, Spyrus, and Vocent. OATH has doubled in size since the organization was founded nearly 18 months ago.  Other new members include Audio SmartCard, Boojum Mobile, Discretix Technologies, Iteon, Imprivata, and Red Cannon Security.

In addition, OATH has added end user companies to its membership.  Two major financial institutions have joined OATH and will make a significant contribution to the development of open authentication standards through the perspective of customers.  These two financial institutions, which represent millions of customers, have joined OATH at the end-user level to work closely with OATH-member companies on open and royalty-free specifications for strong authentication.

The total number of member companies in OATH is 46.  The membership of OATH has increased by 77 percent since January 2005 and the organization is now actively seeking end user members to contribute towards the goal of royalty-free open authentication technologies.