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    Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a game-changer for…

    Identity and Access Management

    Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the process of managing digital identities of individuals within an organisation and their access to systems and services. An individual’s ‘Digital Identity’ is the set of data which uniquely identifies them within an organisation. A secure IAM process gives the right user the right access, to the right resources, at the right time. It is essential to have this fine grained control of user access in big enterprise, including pharma, telecoms, banking, utilities and in other organisations such as third level institutions. It turns information security into a competitive advantage.
    Third level institutions for example are required to manage thousands of digital identities, including staff, students and visitors. These and other organisations need control over the identity lifecycle and access of users’ digital identities to ensure positive user experience, operational efficiency, reduction of security risk and to meet regulatory or compliance requirements. The process of IAM enables this.

    The cloud is changing identities

    Software as a Service (SaaS) is growing and we see increased numbers of organisations utilising more and more cloud services. Cloud brings with it unique challenges as historically, user digital identities were housed within the four walls of the company and were completely within the company’s control. Now with the proliferation of the cloud, organisations are potentially sacrificing control and security in return for improved end-user functionality and reduced costs. The use of cloud services, such as Office365 or SalesForce, by organisations mean that staff now have identities outside the organisational domains. Digital identities are expanding and without a defined IAM process, it will require more time and effort for IT resources to manage user access, remove access rights when necessary and ensure cyber security of the organisation is not compromised.

    What are the drivers for IAM?

    Organisations seek IAM for many reasons, including to use it as a critical security control within their IT operations. Other drivers include high risk of security breach; operational and support costs; lack of process for existing digital identities; everything done on an adhoc basis with lack of auditing; slow access to resources; different logons or passwords to different systems and separate external and internal identities.

    Best practice IAM

    IAM is an ongoing process and we assist our customers in developing an IAM strategy and roadmap, planning their additional of applications in a phased approach and having a centralised policy for all new systems within the organisation. Best practice for the IAM process to better succeed is a single identity for each user. Organisations can provide improved user experience to staff through features such as Single Sign On (SSO) in an environment where authentication is centrally controlled, such as through Microsoft’s Active Directory. At a minimum, organisations can provide improved user experience through same sign on, so a user still only requires one login.
    A well-defined IAM roadmap should create a central set of rules for every application that requires integration into the organisation. It should contain information on how user lifecycles are managed, including joiners, movers and leavers and contain a suite of products which sit at the core of your IT infrastructure. These products should be available to any new system that requires integration in order to r streamline the identity and access process within an organisation.

    How can an IAM process help your business?

    The automated nature of IAM enables cost savings as a result of automated account set up, automated control over user cycles and the reduction of support costs. It frees up budget to spend where needed; reputation, revenue protection and compliance. The IAM process also makes it easier for an organisation to be compliant, both locally and internationally. It can provide information on who has access to what and defines which users have access, which is required by most international regulatory policies.
    IAM creates efficiencies within an organisation by simplifying management of users’ digital identities and freeing up resources. It also increases levels of user satisfaction, which can boost reputation.
    An IAM process is critical in order to reap the benefits of cloud without the accompanying challenges.

    News

    Ward Solutions helps Laya Healthcare robustly protect the data…

    Ward Solutions, Ireland’s leading information security provider, is today announcing that it is delivering a comprehensive information security service to Laya Healthcare to protect the health insurer against emerging IT security threats and manage information security risks. The contract is valued at €120,000 over 18 months.
    Noel O'Grady, Ward Solutions, Ian Brennan, Laya Healthcare and
    Laya Healthcare provides health insurance to more than 475,000 customers across Ireland and has a team of 430 employees in Dublin and Cork. As a health insurer, it deals with large amounts of confidential data and places a high priority on safeguarding the security and integrity of all of its customer’s information.
    To ensure it has the most effective IT security systems and policies in place, Laya Healthcare appointed Ward Solutions to carry out a full risk assessment for the organisation. This has resulted in improved internal procedures and processes across all of its businesses. It has also focused IT spend on key areas which include compliance and protection of corporate reputation.
    Ward Solutions is now also providing an Information Security Officer as a Service to Laya Healthcare with the main purpose of implementing procedures that will help the organisation attain ISO 27001 accreditation. This will deliver competitive advantage in the health insurance market for Laya Healthcare as this standard provides customers with the confidence that any risks are being effectively managed at all times and that the data of laya healthcare members is protected.
    Ward’s information security officer will establish, implement and improve Laya Healthcare’s ISO 27001 compliant information security management system and will reduce the costs and time to achieve successful accreditation.
    Ian Brennan, director of Information Technology, Laya Healthcare said, “We are committed to reinforcing the protection of all our confidential customer data on an ongoing basis. Ward Solutions has helped us join the dots across the organisation and has provided us with a complete overview of our information security environment. The resulting actionable reports have enabled us to become more proactive as we mitigate risk in the ever evolving security landscape.
    “Also, having a deeply experienced and qualified security expert from Ward onsite a few days a week and with a single focus, has guaranteed information security is prioritised at all times. They are helping us to build a real culture of secure protection across our business.”
    Brendan Molloy, business development manager, Ward Solutions, said, “Laya Healthcare has a very large and complex IT environment and as such its security infrastructure is intricate. We have many years’ experience working with businesses of all sizes and know how to see through this complexity to identify potential threats and recommend the best services and solutions that will suit their needs.
    “Our goal is to ensure we are doing the right thing for our customers and our specialists spend a lot of time training and researching the latest threats so that we can always provide the very best advice and support. We will continue working closely with Laya Healthcare to give them the highest levels of confidence that risk is managed appropriately.”
     

    News

    Security Consultancy take on App Dev in Grant Thornton…

    On TuGrant Thornton 5km runesday 2nd September a record 3,856 runners making up 964 teams took part in the third annual Grant Thornton Corporate 5k Team Challenge in the Dublin Docklands. Among them were 8 runners making up 2 teams for Ward Solutions. The event was run in aid of LauraLynn with 10% of the entry fees going to that charity, with more being raised through sponsorship of the individual teams.
    For some of us, our warm up consisted of the adrenalin pumping stress of driving from City West into the docklands, through rush-hour traffic. Arnaud had planned to take a bike from Harolds Cross – but the City Bikes had a glitch and the stations were out of order. He phoned Sinead, to say he’d be late as he had now had to walk to the docklands. Sinead was in her car by the canal, looking for a parking space in order to hop on one of aforementioned bikes. Her heart rate was close to max without running a step! But we made it in time, arriving looking like we’d finished already!
    The Ward Solutions teams, like many of the others, were made up of a mix of serious and fun runners. Team 1, the Security Consultancy team led by marathon runner Brendan Fay, were hotly fancied to take the honours. However despite having a lower average age by 6 years, they were beaten on the night by Team 2 from Application Development and Sales. Credit must be given to the youngest runner, Xiuyuan Yu, who was drafted into Team 1 at the 11th hour in place of Richard Costelloe, who had very inconsiderately gone on holiday! Xiuyuan is a sprinter, and did well complete the 5k course in a very respectable time. Brendan Gormley posted the best Ward time of 23:39, with Brendan Fay in 25:06 and allegedly injured Arnaud Autin with 25:09. If Arnaud posts that time while injured, he’ll be some asset when he’s recovered.
    Team 2, had a perfect blend of youth and experience. Philip Bustard led the team home in 25:53, Richard Eyres in 27:13, Brendan Molloy in 27:53 and Sinead Harrington in 30:55. Their combined scores just pipped Team 1 for bragging rights, not that we in App Dev brag – we leave that to other Ward teams.
    After a restorative cup of tea and sandwich in race headquarters in CHQ, we retired to the “Harbourmaster” for a team debrief and to plan a strategy for next year. It’s a simple one– train more, get faster! A year seems so far away – we’ll have to find another race. We’ve been bitten by the running bug.
     
    Grant Thornton 5km run - selfie

    News

    Brendan Gormley secures top three placing in Irish CISM…

    Ward Solutions would like to extend hearty congratulations to Brendan Gormley, senior information security consultant, on achieving one of the top three results in Ireland for a recently completed Certified InformationBrendan Gormley, senior information security consultant and PCI specialist, Ward Solutions Security Manager (CISM) exam.
    Certification from CISM promotes international security practices and recognises individuals who manage, design, oversee and assess an enterprise’s information security.
    Brendan will be recognised for his wonderful achievements at an awards ceremony at the ISACA AGM on 18th September. All of our CISM members from our Information Security Consultancy Practice team will be there to celebrate with Brendan too.
    Ward Solutions recognises that the skills and knowledge of our security consultants are a key part of our continued success. This achievement by Brendan further demonstrates our leadership position in this area. Our Information Security Consultancy Practice is the most technically proficient in Ireland, providing technical expertise, independent consultancy advice and superior quality to all of our customer engagements.
    Once again, we’d like to take the opportunity to congratulate Brendan Gormley and we hope that you will pass on your congratulations too.
    Brendan Fay, Head of Information Security Practice, Ward Solutions

    News

    Ward Solutions announces 22 new jobs and €1.8M investment

    Ward Solutions, Ireland’s leading information security provider, today announced the creation of 22 new jobs at its Dublin and Belfast offices. These jobs are being created as part of a new €1.8M investment to fund significant expansion and upgrade of all services delivered in Ward’s Security Operations Centre in Citywest, Dublin. This includes the enhancement of services such as managed security, digital forensics, e-Discovery and security analytics.
    Founded in 1999, Ward Solutions provides a comprehensive range of information security services to more than 300 customers across the island of Ireland. Key services include security consultancy, secure managed services and software development.
    Ward Solutions will begin recruitment immediately and will have all 22 new employees on board within two years. This will bring total employee numbers to 80 before the end of 2016. 16 of the new hires will be based in Citywest, Dublin and 6 will be based in its new office in Belfast city centre. The new roles will include information security engineers, developers, information security consultants, customer services and sales positions.
    The investment is focused on all areas where Ward is experiencing and anticipating growth. This includes adding significant capability to its security operations and secure managed services centre, which is being equipped with highly advanced information security technologies. This includes risk assessment, monitoring, analysis and remediation capabilities, identity and access management, online policy and compliance management, as well as the key personnel to deliver the services securely.
    Reflecting the increasing compliance and litigation demand, Ward is also enhancing its digital forensics, e-Discovery and security analytics services at both a platform and capabilities level.
    Ward Solutions has experienced an average year-on-year growth rate of 20% over the past two years and predicts that this growth will accelerate further to 30% per annum for the next two years. It expects to achieve revenues in excess of €10M by 2016.
    While most of Ward’s existing customer base is in the Republic of Ireland, it sees significant growth opportunities in Northern Ireland, following the opening of its new Belfast office. Ward also serves a small number of customers in Britain and will target considerable growth in the UK market over the next two years.
    Ward’s customer base includes a wide range of private and public sector organisations, such as CIE, Vodafone, National College of Ireland, Bord Gáis, Fleetmatics and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.
    Pat Larkin, CEO, Ward Solutions, comments, “This investment in new employees, technologies and services will provide us with a very solid and scalable platform to achieve our aggressive growth plans. There has been a huge rise in demand for our services as the security threat landscape has continued to evolve and become increasingly difficult for businesses to manage. Customers like the fact that they deal with a provider who can deliver on all of their information security requirements.”
    “We have the largest and most capable team of information security resources in Ireland and can mobilise quickly to solve any IT security problem. We continuously invest a lot of time and budget in R&D, developing new solutions to increase our customers’ security and compliance, and reduce the complexities caused by information security management and incidents. We’re really looking forward to bringing in new talent to our Dublin and Belfast offices to add to our existing highly experienced team. By the end of this investment, we will have the largest information security resource on the island, with the widest range of capabilities.”
    Paul Hogan, CTO, Ward Solutions and Pat Larkin, CEO, Ward Solut
     

    Noel O'Grady News

    Ward builds out leadership team to further drive growth…

    Noel O'GradyNoel O’Grady joins Ward Solutions’ executive team as Sales Director to further drive the company’s ongoing growth and development.  Noel brings to the business strong commercial skills along with many years of experience in the information security sector having previously worked with Rits, TeleCity and Fort Technologies.
    Noel joins an ever growing team at Ward and is the 9th new hire in the last six months across a variety of executive, consulting and technology roles.

    IE Logo Insights

    Security Alert – Microsoft Internet Explorer 6-11 – What…

    IE LogoAs you may be aware, there has been a critical security vulnerability found and exploited in Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 6 through 11. Until Microsoft release a patch, here’s what the security analysts at Ward Solutions recommend users do to protect themselves and their businesses:-

    1. Avoid using Internet Explorer where possible. If you must use Internet Explorer for a certain application or site them limit your use of its to these situations only
    2. Disable Adobe Flash plugin as this is required for this bug to work

    The Microsoft Internet Explorer exploit relies on a flaw in Internet Explorer and the presence of Adobe Flash. It does require a user to visit a malicious web page, or a web page that has hosted user-provided content or advertisements. Once exploited, the flaw allows the attacker to run commands and code on the target users machine, with local user privileges.
    In short, this means that the latest IE bug works when an internet user clicks on a malicious link in Internet Explorer. There is no warning that something might be wrong, and clicking on the wrong link is all that it takes for your computer to be compromised. After you click on the link, malware may be installed on your computer without being noticed.
    If you would like further assistance or advice on this issue, please contact the Helpdesk on (01) 6420100 or via email at support@ward.ie
    References:
    [1] http://www.fireeye.com/blog/uncategorized/2014/04/new-zero-day-exploit-targeting-internet-explorer-versions-9-through-11-identified-in-targeted-attacks.html “New Zero-Day Exploit…”
    [2] https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/security/2963983 “Microsoft Security Advisory 2963983”

    News

    Meet us the Credit Union Managers Association event Athlone…

    Ward Solutions will be sponsoring and presenting at the Credit Union Managers Association event at the Hodson Bay Hotel Athlone on the 18th & 19th February 2014. Come along to our stand to hear the range of services we can offer credit unions to help them secure their members information and to meet your other compliance requirements including regulator and data protection requirements. We will be presenting on a pragmatic approach to appropriate Information Security Tuesday afternoon and will available before and afterwards to answer your questions.  Details of our services specifically for credit unions can be found here.

    News

    New Office Address in Belfast

    Ward Solutions have a new office address and contact details for our Northern Ireland office moving from our old Waring Street location to just around the corner at 25 Talbot Street, Cathedral Quarter Belfast BT1 2LD telephone 028 90823688.

    News

    Meet Ward Solutions at HEAnet's annual conference in Athlone…

    Meet Ward Solutions at HEAnet’s annual conference in Athlone.
    http://heanet.ie/news_and_publications/conference_2013_registration
    Ward Solutions works extensively with the Higher Education and Research Sector in Ireland and Northern Ireland. We provide most of the major Institutions and bodies in the sector with our service and solutions enabling their business and helping them secure their Information Systems and Services. Use the conference as an opportunity to meet with us and discuss your Information Security challenges. We will be happy to share our experience with your needs.