British American Tobacco South Africa, the local arm of the prominent international tobacco group, has implemented a comprehensive security solution, PowerDesk, from SPI.
A South African-based company, SPI develops and markets leading utility software products based on open systems architecture, enabling organisations to improve the quality of their information exchange and enhance system security.
Gil Bauman, technical director: SPI, says British American Tobacco needed to address the security problems experienced within its Unix environment and increase the integrity of its Unix platform. "The company found PowerDesk with its two modules, Delegator and Access Control, to be an innovative solution that could improve the organisation's electronic interaction with internal and external users alike."
Bauman says Access Control secures and controls British American Tobacco's users via automation of the security system, ensuring that route passwords are not readily available to all users, and comprehensive audit trials across the organisation's operation.
"The creation of a superuser with a route password means that users are able to carry out daily administration and system maintenance tasks, but with less scope for user intervention and therefore less potential for breach of security."
Bauman says PowerDesk also provides authorisation control for programmes that require high security, eliminating chances that the system could be left vulnerable to unauthorised access.
"Further, PowerDesk allows the Administrator to be aware of events and fix problems even before a user logs a fault, which means efficiencies within British American Tobacco are significantly enhanced."
Bauman says the company uses Powerdesk Delegator to define specific time windows within which users can log onto the system.
"Delegator also automatically disconnects inactive users that have been logged onto the system for longer than a prescribed period."
British American Tobacco has been especially impressed by SPI's competitive offering, notes Bauman, adding that many other security tools are a lot more expensive.
"Additional advantages of the solution are the ease and short timeframe within which the package was implemented, as well as its user-friendliness.
"Since the PowerDesk tools link into the Unix kernel and functions completely separate from the organisation's operating system, the kernel did not have to be shut down during integration."
The PowerDesk implementation was therefore entirely transparent to users and non-intrusive to operations within the company, he explains.
With the successful implementation and utilisation of PowerDesk at British American Tobacco, SPI has established a solid relationship and looks forward to provide the company with excellent service and support on an ongoing basis, Bauman concludes.
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