ActivIdentityŽ Corporation has announced that Deloitte Ireland is facilitating secure remote and office-based access through the use of a strong certificate-based, two-factor authentication solution from ActivIdentity.

Deloitte Ireland is using the ActivIdentity solution to provide more than 900 employees with secure remote access to IT systems across the firm’s locations in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. In addition, Deloitte practitioners also use their smartcard to access laptop and central IT systems when working within any Deloitte facility.

The company also worked with ActivIdentity to create a single multi-application smart card, enabling employees to authenticate themselves to all Deloitte Ireland offices and IT systems. The solution is based on Deloitte’s global PKI implementation.

The ActivIdentity Smart Employee ID solution, which incorporates the ActivID™ Card Management System solution, will enable Deloitte Ireland to overcome the challenge of increasing security for remote workers while reducing management and administration overheads. Deloitte Ireland is adopting an identity assurance platform which replaces static passwords and multiple employee smart cards with a single card to provide staff with secure access to their networks from any location in the world.

“Our business model is based on time rates, so our people must have access to information on demand to carry out their work effectively,” explains John Gray, head of IT and operations at Deloitte Ireland. “We’re using the ActivIdentity solution to facilitate this process and to ensure that data integrity is maintained at the highest possible security level. Not only does this help to assure clients, but it has also had a significant impact on our own staff’s perception of security. Our fully integrated solution allows users to access not only their own building but all facilities within Deloitte Ireland. This ensures that our users carry their smart card with them at all times.

“The ActivIdentity ActivID CMS, which is part of the ActivIdentity Smart Employee ID solution has saved us time, reduced our management costs and streamlined user access,” continues Gray. “Above all, the consolidation of logical and physical access has had a major impact on our employees’ awareness of IT security, and best practice is now at the forefront of their minds. We are also capitalising on the flexibility of the technology by rolling out a smart card enabled solution delivering secure printing through our multi-function printing devices.”

Marc Hudavert, vice-president and general manager of EMEA, ActivIdentity comments, “The Deloitte Ireland implementation is a perfect example of how organisations can use security to drive efficiency by ensuring staff can easily access the network wherever and whenever they need to.”