Credit Suisse Group Uses Entrust Technology to Secure Desktop Applications
More than 20,000 employees using Entrust software today
Credit Suisse Group is a leading global financial services company headquartered in Switzerland. Its business unit Credit Suisse Financial Services provides private clients and small and medium-sized companies with private banking and financial advisory services, banking products, and pension and insurance solutions from Winterthur. The business unit Credit Suisse First Boston, an investment bank, serves global institutional, corporate, government and individual clients in its role as a financial intermediary. The Group employs around 64,000 staff and operates in over 50 countries worldwide.
User accountability and privacy are of the utmost importance throughout Credit Suisse Group - not least in view of the confidential financial information handled by its employees and IT systems. Credit Suisse Group requires a full and accurate record of all users accessing its corporate resources to ensure both accountability and the integrity of all types of information. Ensuring that users are properly identified and authenticated to applications is therefore a critical issue.
When examining possible new solutions for its authentication requirements, Credit Suisse Group identified the construction of a single security infrastructure that would enable authentication, authorization, encryption and digital signatures, as its main objective.
The Need
Building for today and the future
Stringent legal and regulatory requirements governing access to - and the storage of -information were a further factor to be taken account of in the Group's search for a solution to its security needs. To fulfill its accountability requirements and to fully realize the benefits of its chosen technologies, Credit Suisse Group needed security capabilities that would provide an effective means of authenticating users and ensuring accountability and confidentiality.
Credit Suisse Group decided that Public Key (PKI) technology would be the best option to provide authentication functions for its users because it could also provide the other core security functions the Group may need in the future. Credit Suisse Group selected Entrust Inc to provide its security infrastructure, based on PKI technology. At present, the technology is used only internally, i.e. in employee-to-employee contact.
Credit Suisse Group favored Entrust technology over other competitors because it meets all of its specified requirements, provides the potential for additional uses in the future and can be considered a mature and stable product, amongst other things.
The Solution
Entrust Secure Desktop Solution
Credit Suisse Group's main focus when choosing the Entrust solution was to achieve more effective authentication of internal users.
The Entrust Secure Desktop solution is designed to overcome a common weakness in the implementation of most security systems: human nature. If individuals need to understand the security system or carry out complex steps in order to apply it, there is a likelihood that they will use it incorrectly or not at all.
The Entrust Secure Desktop solution authenticates internal users against Web servers and a large number of other business applications. As a result, it is no longer necessary for these applications to include login security and password management, meaning that new applications can now be developed and deployed more quickly.
In addition, the product may also offer some potential for future cost savings, such as the elimination of token administration and a reduction in password administration. Credit Suisse Group has already started to reduce the cost of administering tokens and resetting passwords for internal users. It has also increased the speed with which new applications can be developed by leveraging a central authentication infrastructure instead of incorporating it in each individual application. However, Credit Suisse Group is particularly interested in the longer-term return on its investment in Entrust technology, since ensuring appropriate security can pave the way for more sophisticated business processes in the future.
The Future
More Employees Added Everyday
Credit Suisse Group has already installed the Entrust Entelligence Desktop Manager at the workplaces of some 20,000 employees and plans to continue rolling out the application for internal usage across further areas of the company.
Credit Suisse Group is today using Entrust for desktop authentication purposes only. However, other applications and security services, such as smart card login and improved single sign-on capabilities, could be added in order to realize the maximum return on the investment in the Entrust Security Infrastructure.
