Case Studies > Family Assurance Enhances Security and Achieves FAST Accreditation with Pointsec Protector

Family Assurance Enhances Security and Achieves FAST Accreditation with Pointsec Protector

Technology Category
  • Cybersecurity & Privacy - Security Compliance
Applicable Industries
  • National Security & Defense
Applicable Functions
  • Quality Assurance
Use Cases
  • Leasing Finance Automation
  • Tamper Detection
About The Customer
Family Assurance is the UK’s largest tax-exempt friendly society, providing a range of saving bonds and investment products including tax-free saving bonds, Individual Savings Accounts, unit trusts, and children’s saving bonds. As a mutual company, it has over 500,000 members and over £1.5bn ($2.5 billion) invested. The company is committed to meeting new challenges and leading with technological advances. Its constant investment in new technology allows for better administration and significant cost reduction, making it competitive with the most efficient insurance companies in Britain.
The Challenge
Family Assurance, the UK’s largest tax-exempt friendly society, faced a significant challenge in maintaining data and corporate network integrity due to the large number of staff. The company identified risks associated with unmanaged user access, such as the potential for sensitive data to be moved via removable media or the introduction of virus-infected, untested, or unlicensed software. The team at Family Assurance wanted to take a proactive stance and use a sophisticated technology solution to ensure that the company did all that it could to promote good practice. They aimed to achieve accreditation from the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), a UK organization that promotes the legal use of software. FAST accreditation indicates software compliance and reduces virus risks.
The Solution
Family Assurance chose to implement Pointsec Protector, a solution that offered the granularity and layered approach that the company required. Pointsec Protector has the ability to scan all incoming media for viruses and ensure it is nonmalicious data only, immediately blocking this avenue of vulnerability. Scanned media would then be signed on as authorized for use within an organization’s network. Any changes made outside the network would automatically mark the media as unauthorized and require rescanning. On the desktop, Pointsec Protector prevents the creation, modification, or deletion of any defined file types, preventing unauthorized additions to a hard drive from any source. The solution also provides individual or group profiles, allowing for central management, monitoring, logging, auditing, and alerting of attempted security breaches in a variety of ways, enabling a truly flexible approach to company-wide security.
Operational Impact
  • The implementation of Pointsec Protector has significantly enhanced the security measures at Family Assurance. The solution makes it difficult for staff to compromise security by declining to load software or data or copying the same to any media at the PC ahead of the media being scanned and tagged as safe against viruses and infection. Pointsec Protector was installed to support the company's strategic security aims and to safeguard its position in achieving FAST accreditation in 2003. It has played a part in ensuring that the company's systems are kept safe and continue to operate efficiently. It has addressed many risks but additionally ensures that the company's practices relating to the holding, use, and disclosure of data are always in accordance with data protection notifications. Alongside this, it underpins software compliance and reduces risks against virus infection.

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