Frequently asked questions

Common questions about Ironchip, its technology, and its products. If yours is not here, open a ticket.

About Ironchip

What is Ironchip?

Ironchip is a Spanish company specialized in digital identity and cybersecurity, founded in 2017 in the Basque Country. It has developed a patented location technology that combines AI and electromagnetic signal analysis for passwordless authentication and fraud detection.

Its team of experts in big data, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity builds products to protect the sectors society depends on, such as finance, industry and government.

What is the Ironchip identity platform?

It is a system that identifies and verifies users based on their location. It integrates with services and applications, monitors access, and configures identity factors according to security policies. It gives you maximum control over corporate access by determining who your users are and authorizing their access to the different applications in your organization. See the Identity platform.

What certifications does Ironchip have?

• Company: ISO 27001 (security management), ISO 27701 (privacy) and LINCE (CCN-CERT).
• Product: listed in the CCN-CERT catalog at the HIGH level, the maximum level of the ENS. The CCN-STIC 1633 guide (secure use procedure) is available.

You can check the CPSTIC catalog and the CCN-STIC 1633 guide from the National Cryptologic Center. Learn more in Security and compliance.

How do I contact Ironchip?

• Use the contact form on the Ironchip website.
• Email info@ironchip.com.
• Call +34 944 075 954.

For technical support, see Support.

How can I try Ironchip?

If you want to see any of our products in action, request a demo from our team through the contact form on the Ironchip website or any of the contact channels above. We will be happy to answer all your questions.

Technology

What is Ironchip Location-Based Security (LBS)?

Location-Based Security is a technology that creates a digital identity associated with a location, but not a GPS location. LBS determines a unique place by analyzing the radio waves at that location and creates a unique signature, associated with a non-GPS geolocation, that we call a safe zone.

LBS checks whether a mobile device is in a safe zone from which access to a service is allowed, and allows or denies the operation in a secure and completely anonymous way. As long as you are in your safe zone, you can access secure operations. If you are not somewhere safe to operate from, they are denied. Learn more in Location technology and Location data privacy.

What problem does Location-Based Security solve?

LBS analyzes the radio waves that a mobile or desktop device detects to create a digital identity assigned to that location. It does not use latitude and longitude (GPS) to decide whether a device is in a place where access to the service is allowed. Instead, it uses artificial intelligence that analyzes the radio waves in the environment and creates a unique signature (the safe zone) that determines whether the device is in that safe zone.

This prevents a remote attacker from accessing your service unless they have a specific mobile device in a specific location. The technology also has many other uses, such as preventing physical attacks, protecting access to documents, and detecting fraud.

How do the Ironchip AI algorithms work?

The AI behind LBS is a set of algorithms of different kinds. Each one analyzes the wave spectrum over a period of time and returns its own assessment.

The algorithms must learn the zone, which acts as a password, for a period of time (1 to 3 minutes). The precision of a safe zone is proportional to the time spent learning it.

What signals are analyzed?

We analyze all the signals the device allows us to read. We mostly use Wi-Fi, GSM, WCDMA and LTE alternately, and Bluetooth in some cases. GPS is used only as a contrast signal, never as sole proof.

If the signals in the environment change, nothing happens. The algorithms analyze such a large set of signals that a single change does not interfere with the analysis. In fact, the technology keeps learning from those changes. If the changes last over time, the algorithms learn from the new signals and update the model progressively.

Accuracy is not the most important factor. What matters is that an outside agent cannot access the secure sites, and cannot do it at scale because it cannot be in all the sites at once. Even so, precision is configurable because it depends on the environment and the learning time. In some environments we have reached a precision of 1 meter.

See the full list of signals in Location technology.

Are the signals of safe zones stored?

No. Only a mathematical model is kept, the anonymous signature of the safe zone, which is the result of learning the set of signals. Once the signals have been learned, they are erased.

It is more secure, and storing them is not needed: this prevents large-scale credential theft. Biometric solutions, although convenient, are also not a good approach to security: if they are stolen, users cannot change them. More detail in Location data privacy.

Products and licensing

What are Ironchip’s products?

• Identity platform: an IAM/MFA platform with two tiers.
  • Enterprise: advanced authentication, SSO and centralized management.
  • Premium: everything in Enterprise plus ITDR (Identity Threat Detection and Response).
• Fraud detection: aimed at banking and fintech, it detects transactional fraud from location intelligence and behavior.
• Privileged access: Just-in-Time sessions to servers, databases and Kubernetes, with approval and recording.
• Phishing Shield: in-browser protection against cloned pages, AiTM kits, QR phishing and ClickFix.

You can see the use cases in Ironchip solutions and an overview in What is Ironchip.

Can I integrate Ironchip with my systems?

Yes. Ironchip uses the most widely adopted security standards, such as SAML and OIDC (OpenID Connect), to integrate with your systems, either in Windows environments (Microsoft Active Directory) or through the Ironchip admin console. See Integration protocols and Integrations.

In your own applications, you can integrate Ironchip with the HTTP API or the fraud detection SDK. Users authenticate with the official Ironchip application.

What makes Ironchip’s products different?

They are designed with security as a priority. The location technology, which does not depend on GPS, and the set of security and encryption tools offer characteristics that are very different from what exists on the market, and they make secure authentication possible with a method that is easier to remember and cheaper than other solutions.

Ironchip improves security without increasing user rejection, which helps bring cybersecurity naturally into a company’s culture. Its distinctive features are:

• Anti-fraud: prevents identity theft by certifying that the device in use is an authorized one and not another.
• Anti-password theft: prevents an attacker from intercepting messages and discovering passwords, thanks to a double-encrypted channel (TLS plus asymmetric elliptic-curve encryption).
• Anti data leaks: Ironchip stores no credentials and no safe zone signals, only their anonymous model, which avoids the password leaks we see today.
• Multi-device: works on any device, from mobile phones to computers and industrial machines.

Who are the products for?

The applications of our technology are designed to guarantee security by providing all the security layers that operators of essential services need.

Operators of essential services are active in crucial areas of the economy and society, such as health, transportation, energy, financial infrastructure, and water supply, so they must be especially resistant to cyberattacks.

How does licensing work?

It is per user (identity), never by number of integrated applications. The same user can authenticate in as many applications as needed at no additional cost.

What is the difference between the Enterprise and Premium tiers in SIEM integration?

Both tiers can send events to the SIEM, but ITDR is only active in Premium:

• Enterprise: the SIEM receives the authentication event logs, but Ironchip does not act automatically.
• Premium: ITDR blocks attacks and sends proactive alerts to the SIEM when it detects threats.

To configure it, see SIEM integration. To export events to a file, see Event export.

ITDR

What is ITDR and which threats does it detect?

ITDR (Identity Threat Detection and Response) is the advanced module of the Premium tier. It detects:

• Credential stuffing: multiple failed attempts in a short time.
• Account takeover: access with valid credentials from a new zone or an unknown device.
• Insider threat: access to resources outside the usual profile or at unusual hours.
• Lateral movement: chained accesses in an unusual sequence.
• Access from TOR, VPNs or proxies.
• Device anomalies: rooted devices, emulators or suspicious recent changes.

How long does the system take to learn a user’s behavior profile?

The recommended calibration period is 2 weeks. During that time the system runs in alert only mode (it observes without blocking) and learns the usual zones, devices and schedules. After that, the administrator enables automatic blocking, relying on the learned profile.

Learn more in ITDR and activity log.

USB token

What is the difference between the Ironchip USB (split-key) and FIDO2?

• Split-key: the token is only valid on the paired machine. A stolen token without the machine is useless.
• No PIN: Ironchip does not use a PIN, so there is no PIN to steal and PIN phishing is eliminated.
• ENS High: you need 1 token per user with Ironchip versus 2 with FIDO2 (the backup is mandatory).
• Compatibility with legacy systems: the Ironchip USB works with legacy VPNs, RDP and on-premises systems; FIDO2 requires modern systems.
• Air-gapped environments: Ironchip can operate offline; FIDO2 needs connectivity.

Learn more in USB token and FIDO2.