When Yubico thought about creating a delivery service that would ship its security keys to any employee across the United States and Europe, it never imagined the work world as it is today with coronavirus.

"In January this looked like a useful service," said chief product officer Guido Appenzeller to GearBrain. "We had no idea how useful."

Yet, after announcing the YubiEnterprise service in February 2020, Yubico is now ready to roll out the program starting today. And interest is high, with more than half of the company's new U.S. enterprise deals are looking at delivery options, said the company.

YubiEnterprise DeliveryYubico

The timing for the launch comes as companies still have employees scattered, most working from home, away from a central office where the could pick up a security key — or frankly anything. With tech departments now having to support staff working from home, the need for online security continues to grow. Phishing, a way for hackers to lure people to share security information by tricking them, has increased so much during the coronavirus pandemic that the United States Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure and the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre have issued online security alerts, warning people to be careful about what they click and who they communicate with online.

A Yubikey is a security key, and acts as a way to authenticate someone — an actual physical item that looks a bit like a USB device. It allows someone access to accounts, without having to enter passwords. But as these are physical keys, the responsibility of getting them to staff typically sat with a company. Now, Yubico will handle that extra step — sending a key to someone in Lyon, France or Los Angeles.

Companies will access an online console, where their orders will be visible, including the number of keys they've purchased. There, they'll enter the names and addresses of the people who they want to have keys, and Yubico will make sure they're sent. Bulk orders can be sent, as well as individual keys. Companies can also see if keys have arrived, if they couldn't be delivered, and ask for them to be sent again.

Shipping is handled through credits — companies will pay in advance, with unused portions reimbursed back at the end of 12 months. And for those who pre-pay for a three-year YubiEnterprise subscription before June 26, 2020 there's a special offer to get shipping for free through September 30, 2020

The service is now available for sending YubiKeys to 34 countries across Canada, Europe and the U.S.