Swiss Red Cross Protects Critical Confidential Data with Imprivata OneSign

LEXINGTON, MA - July 7, 2008 - Imprivata®, Inc., the converged identity and access management appliance company, today announced that The Swiss Red Cross (SRC), the oldest and largest relief organization in Switzerland and a part of the International Red Cross network, has selected Imprivata’s OneSign® Single Sign-On (SSO) to provide secure, compliant access to confidential data for its employees.

News Facts
The Swiss Red Cross and its staff faced several operational challenges, all stemming from the conflict between strict compliance and governance regulations and their employees’ need to do their job efficiently and effectively.

  • The SRC’s customers—the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health and the Federal Office for Migration—demand the highest security level (3) for access to their data.
  • As an organization that handles sensitive information in a range of areas, including health data for patients and background information for migrants, SRC had a strict password policy in place for its users. 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.

The SRC began to search for a solution that would not only solve both the security issues and employee productivity issues, but would also be cost-effective and easy to manage.

  • Imprivata’s appliance-based OneSign platform was both easy to use and quickly implemented. After only a day’s training, SRC was able to learn applications themselves and fully support the appliance in-house.
  • OneSign also 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 all of the needed software included within the appliance, the OTP token rollout was simplified and ongoing management has proven to be easier than initially expected.
  • With OneSign in place, the SRC now has a central repository of access information for simplified compliance auditing and reporting.

Today, all 550 employees of The Swiss Red Cross are using one-time password tokens to gain secure, compliant entry into applications and critical company and patient data.

  • Using OneSign, the SRC is 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.
  • They are working more efficiently and with a higher degree of security, ensuring that health and rescue services remain the highest priority at the organization.

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Quote attributed to Benno Stucki, head of the IT department at The Swiss Red Cross Bern
“As a not-for-profit organization, 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. Using Imprivata, our staff has secure access to their applications from wherever they are in the world—and we no longer have to worry about managing passwords.”

Quote attributed to Omar Hussain, president and CEO, Imprivata
“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.”

About The Swiss Red Cross
The Swiss Red Cross (SRC) is the oldest and largest relief organisation in Switzerland. It is comprised of 24 cantonal associations, six corporate members, five foundations and two independent associations. The SRC is responsible for providing assistance to the elderly, sick and infirm, as well as to migrant communities and those in emergency situations both within Switzerland and internationally. It runs a number of institutions to provide blood transfusion services, care and assistance programs and vocational training for the health care and paramedical professions.

The SRC operates as part of a global network with 186 other national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. The SRC is independent, religiously and politically neutral and is open to all people. Based on the seven fundamental principles of the Red Cross – Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity and Universality – it works successfully to overcome political, social and religious barriers.

About Imprivata
Imprivata is the Converged Identity and Access Management (IAM) appliance company. Its OneSign platform helps organizations safeguard enterprise information assets by enabling secure employee access to networks and applications—improving user productivity and convenience, while reducing the time, risk and cost of complying with data privacy and protection regulations. OneSign has received top ratings in product reviews throughout the industry and has been awarded numerous accolades from leading publications including Information Security, InfoWorld and SC Magazine. Headquartered in Lexington, Mass., Imprivata is one of the fastest growing IAM companies with more than 550 customers and 200 partners around the world.For more information, visit http://www.imprivata.com.

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