Cyber-Ark Software, the information security company, reports that Voca has selected Cyber-Ark’s Network Vault to store, share and centrally manage all of their administrative passwords for their hundreds of servers and switches that run business operations for the whole of Voca (formerly BACS), operating 24 hours.
With the introduction of a new payment processing channel BACSTEL-IP, running back to back with the old system, as well as relocating their Head Office and processing centre it became clear that Voca had outgrown their paper based password management system and needed to replace it with an automated and secure digital system. Like many financial institutions Voca had used physical safes to store over 800 administrative passwords, relying on a team of people to authorise, track and administer the passwords. Following a trial, Voca’s Business Continuity & Security Assurance team rolled out Cyber-Ark’s Network Vault in January 2005.
What they say
Keith Reeve, Manager Certification Authority and Access Control, Voca, responsible for introducing and managing Cyber-Ark said: "In 2004, Voca processed over 4.5 billion items amounting to nearly £3 trillion of payments, £11 billion daily. With that amount of administrative passwords it was essential and timely to introduce a digital password management system which was reliable, simple to use and trustworthy. We needed a system that would integrate with our existing operational and security processes while offering unequivical resilience, auditing capabilities and most important of all high levels of security. External IT Consultancy firm Nexillis recommended Cyber-Ark because it was the only product on the market to offer these capabilities together with a track record with major financial institutions, insurance companies and government bodies around the world. In addition, Nexillis reviewed the long term strategic benefits of its scaleability and adaptablity."
"Security is of utmost importance to a company like Voca, and by choosing Cyber-Ark they have an out-of-the-box solution which provides them with a best-in-class secure process whereby administrative passwords can be archived, transferred and shared among IT staff and authorised administrators," said Udi Mokady, COO and co-founder of Cyber-Ark.
Keith Reeve continues: "In the few weeks we have used it, we have already experienced time, cost and convenience benefits. It has immediately achieved what we set out to achieve and I will now recommend it to other departments within Voca." Cyber-Ark reports that its Network Vault solution for passwords provides a "safe haven" within the enterprise where all administrative passwords can be archived, transferred and shared among IT staff and both on-call administrators and those in the field. The end-to-end solution protects passwords during transmission and at rest with multiple layers of integrated security, granular access control mechanisms and graphical auditing solutions to track every password’s whereabouts.
