Swiss Environmental Company Taps RSA to Ensure Business Continuity in the Event of Global H1N1 Pandemic
RSA, the Security Division of EMC,
announced that Valorec Services AG, a Swiss environmental and waste
services company, has almost quadrupled its deployment of the RSA SecurID® On-Demand Authenticator
for secure, remote network access in order to help guarantee business
continuity. Valorec previously outfitted RSA SecurID to a smaller group
of employees including members of upper management. It decided to ready
an expansion of its RSA SecurID deployment as a precaution to help
prepare ahead of a potential global H1N1 pandemic scenario which could
require anywhere, anytime access for a significantly expanded remote
workforce.
"Many of our
clients have been taking measures to ensure business continuity during
a pandemic and this has been at the top of our agenda because
protecting their data is critical to our organization's success," said
John Martinussen, Chief Information Officer, Valorec Services. "We
upgraded to the newer version of RSA® Authentication Manager to use its
business continuity option where user access rights are controlled
centrally, making it secure and easy to manage."
The
business continuity option within RSA Authentication Manager -- the
server-side software that powers the RSA SecurID system -- allows
Valorec to temporarily expand its license to a large number of users.
Pre-authorized personnel from departments such as purchasing, control
and production will be able to leverage RSA SecurID in order to protect
valuable data and help ensure that operations go uninterrupted. To
prevent overwhelming the IT help desk during a time when a large number
of users require secure network access, an online self-service module
can be accessed to request and receive an eight-digit one-time password
via simple messaging service (SMS) or email.
According
to Patrick Epper, Technical Engineer, Valorec Services, "It is the
perfect solution because it requires no physical hardware token or
software to be installed on a laptop or smart phone. We simply create a
user profile and define the length of time users have access to the
network, whether it's a few hours or an entire day. This technology
will provide us with a reliable and secure solution in the event of a
pandemic."
"With the
business continuity option, an enterprise can empower users to manage
their RSA SecurID token lifecycles while maintaining compliance to
organizational security policies designed to protect identities,
information and the infrastructure," said Tom Corn, Vice President of
Product Marketing at RSA. "The RSA SecurID On-Demand Authenticator can
also open the door to productivity-enhancing applications by making it
easier to support a large base of users, partners and vendors that do
not access the network frequently enough to justify the issuing of
individual credentials."