Passlogix Sign-On Solutions for The Financial Services Industry

Few industries are required by law to regulate data access and privacy more rigorously than financial services. Monitoring the security measures taken by a financial institution’s teller operations, data processing companies, securities clearinghouses, check printing operations, and other third-party service providers is critical.

One reason is Sarbanes-Oxley, enacted in the wake of the Enron scandal to ensure accuracy in financial reporting. Another is the growing epidemic of identity theft; analysts estimate that credit-card issuers lose $1 billion to $3 billion each year to fraud resulting from the theft of credit card information.

Fortunately, Passlogix offers a full suite of solutions, all built on the industry standard v-GO Sign-on Platform, to ease the burden of compliance. With the Passlogix v-GO^® Sign-on Platform, IT professionals can implement password and authentication measures that:

Enable authorized users to rapidly access financial applications they need to service customers.

Give IT administrators an audit trail of who accesses financial applications, when, and which applications they accessed next.
Keep customer records private and secure, away from the prying eyes of hackers and other unauthorized users.
Extend strong authentication and password control to all employees as well as third-party service providers who also deploy the v-GO Sign-on Platform.

Gramm-Leach and Sarbanes-Oxley
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) requires banks, securities firms, mortgage brokers, and credit card companies to keep customer financial data private. The penalties for noncompliance are stiff: fines of up to $1 million and criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison. The financial services industry’s spending on GLBA compliance will reach $170 million in 2006.

Sarbanes-Oxley (SO) has placed an additional burden on financial services and other firms to ensure accuracy in their financial reporting and statements. Estimates to achieve SO compliance range from $1.6 million to $4.4 million per company per year.

Enhances network security
Traders, customer service reps, managers, and other users in financial services firms are often in a hurry, and as a result, may attempt to bypass security in their haste. For instance, a user tells other users in his group his password to an application, making it impossible for IT to establish an audit trail of who did what and when.

Passlogix solutions help control system access with features such as random-generated passwords. These automatically generated, non-dictionary passwords are more difficult to figure out than birthdays and other typical user-selected passwords, enhancing application security. By keeping customer financial data secure, you help eliminate identity theft, increase customer confidence, avoid negative publicity, and preserve your company’s reputation.

Fast access to financial data
Passlogix v-GO Single Sign-On (SSO) enables users to log in once with a single password. Once users are logged in, whatever application they open is served the correct ID and password from v-GO SSO transparently and automatically.

The system eliminates the need for users to remember and manage multiple usernames and passwords for all their applications. As a result, strong passwords – those that are complex and frequently changed – can be used, because they are stored in an encrypted database that is transparent to the user.

Having a single easy-to-remember password means your employees can gain instant access to their applications. Customers are impatient and dislike waiting for their account information when they need it. With Passlogix v-GO SSO, your customer service reps get authorized access to accounts and other relevant data – enabling prompt response to customer queries.

Works with your existing legacy systems
Other sign-on solutions often require you to replace legacy systems with new technology to achieve single sign-on throughout your enterprise. But Passlogix’s solutions work with whatever security schemes your current systems employ.

By using virtually any LDAP directory, Active Directory, or database server as its user profile and credential repository – without touching your base schema -- Passlogix’s v-GO Sign-on Platform frees you from the limitations of the “authentication silos” built into your various enterprise applications. The centralized repository stores credential data, application configurations, and security policies for all existing applications.

Benefits of Passlogix v-GO sign-on technology

Ease of implementation — meets GLBA standards effortlessly.
Accountability — tracks usage of customer’s personal data and minimizes risk of identity theft.
Safe and reliable accessibility — authenticates credentials properly to assure reliable and secure access to financial data.
Lock-down of financial applications — applies the strictest password policies for each application.
Single sign-on – authorized users can log on to all applications with a single, secure, easy-to-remember password.
Works with popular authentication devices — supports smart cards, tokens, public key infrastructure (PKI), and biometrics.
On-the-fly encryption – secures and protects every application and credential at all times.
Rapid return on investment — leverages existing infrastructure and reduces help desk costs.
Simple compliance — protects your customers' personal and financial records.

For additional information

Please read

Safeguarding Financial Privacy

Contact us: sales@passlogix.com