NEWTON, Mass. – October 9, 2012 – Cyber-Ark® Software today announced business and regulatory results of its deployment with PostFinance, one of Switzerland’s leading financial institutions and the leader in Swiss payment transactions. PostFinance chose Cyber-Ark’s privileged identity management solution to comply with regulatory requirements while delivering a secure, reliable banking experience for its customers.
In order to protect against insider abuse, sensitive information disclosure and targeted cyber attacks that can expose the private data of customers, the government requires financial services providers to document not only “who” accesses sensitive systems and information, but also “what” those individuals actually do with that access. As a result, activities performed during privileged sessions need to be logged for auditing purposes and the information must be managed and secured. To meet those goals, PostFinance selected Cyber-Ark’s Privileged Identity Management and Privileged Session Management Suites.
Today, more than 500 users including developers and database administrators use the combined Cyber-Ark solution to access target systems used for development (testing and integration) and production. Primary results and key benefits achieved to date include:
- Improved security posture through ability to isolate, control and monitor privileged account and session activity
- Increased visibility into privileged access for easier troubleshooting
- Met security and audit requirements with ease including compliance with regulations from the Swiss financial markets supervisory authority (FINMA), Basel II and PCI-DSS regulations
- Reduced disruptions affecting customer service
“After evaluating several solutions, we were impressed by the functionality and scalability of Cyber-Ark’s solutions. Also, the ability to rapidly and cost-effectively integrate with the existing infrastructure at our two data centers without making major changes to the network architecture was critical to our decision,” said Stefan Weber, head of IT security at PostFinance. “Cyber-Ark’s solutions deliver solid performance and allow us to meet compliance and security requirements while significantly optimizing business processes.”
Improving Security and Increasing Operational Effectiveness
Cyber-Ark’s Privileged Identity Management Suite protects privileged credentials and manages and tracks privileged account users and activities. The complementary Privileged Session Management Suite allows privileged sessions to be monitored in real-time or recorded for forensic analysis and change management playback.
One of the key advantages of the Cyber-Ark solution is that there is no direct communication between the user’s computer and the target system since the connection terminates at the Privileged Session Management server. The Suite’s proxy acts as a jump server for all administrative connections. Without it, target systems cannot be accessed – or compromised. Additionally, by assigning permissions within the framework of a role-based access control system and using stringent authentication methods, PostFinance was able to improve and consolidate workflows regarding the type and scope of target system sessions.
“Compliance with global banking regulations can be a complex undertaking, further complicated when organizations must also prioritize around security – guarding high-value targets against insider threats and external cyber attacks,” said Nick Baglin, vice president of sales, EMEA, Cyber-Ark Software. “We have worked closely with PostFinance to ensure success across its security and compliance priorities, while helping it maintain focus on ensuring a positive customer experience.”
