Swiss Red Cross use Imprivata single sign-on
- 23 July 2008
The Swiss Red Cross (SRC) has selected Imprivata’s OneSign single sign-on platform to provide secure, compliant access to confidential data for its employees.
All 550 employees of the SRC are now using one-time password tokens to gain secure, entry into applications and critical company and patient data.
Previously, the SRC and its staff faced several operational challenges, due to the need to ensure strict compliance and governance regulations were being met.
Employees needed to do their job efficiently and effectively, but had to remember a number of passwords to gain access to a variety of applications.
Benno Stucki, head of the IT department at the SRC said: "As a not-for-profit organisation, we have to be sure that our investment in IT goes as far as possible. At the same time, we have to make our systems as secure as they can be to protect the sensitive information that we have on file.”
The SRC’s customers include the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health and the Federal Office for Migration, making the need for access to data to be secure heightened.
The data held is also considered to be sensitive information in a range of areas, including health data for patients and background information for migrants, and so password-protection on all files was a must.
Strong log-ins were needed for all staff for application access-leaving users with the burden of remembering many passwords just to gain access to the information they needed to do their jobs.
As a result, employees would forget their passwords, increasing the time wasted by both staff and the IT department on password retrieval and/or reset.
“Using Imprivata, our staff have secure access to their applications from wherever they are in the world-and we no longer have to worry about managing passwords," said Stucki.
Imprivata’s appliance-based OneSign platform now manages the SRC staff’s VASCO One Time Password tokens for greater security. There is no need for external card readers, or for employees to have mobile connectivity in order to connect securely.
With OneSign in place, the SRC now has a central repository of access information for simplified compliance auditing and reporting. Using the platform, it is now able to allow simple and secure access for all staff, whether they are located in developing countries or in regions that have been affected by natural disasters.
Omar Hussain, president and CEO of Imprivata, said: "The Swiss Red Cross is renowned for its compassion, dedication to service and dependability-as well as for the remarkable work accomplished by its employees and volunteers.
“Imprivata’s OneSign platform is a perfect match for the SRC’s high standards, as we are dedicated to helping all of our customers-emergency care, banking or otherwise-operate more efficiently and securely, while continuing to deliver on their missions."
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