Imprivata®, Inc., the authentication and access management appliance company, today announced that Mothercare, one of the UK’s leading retail chains serving the baby and children’s markets, is implementing Imprivata OneSign to support single sign-on (SSO) and strong authentication which, when rolled out, will be available to up to 750 staff. Imprivata OneSign plays a key role in helping Mothercare achieve its Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance requirements.

As part of its overall security strategy, Mothercare has chosen Imprivata OneSign to provide strong authentication to the company’s IT network along with different authentication factors to meet staff needs. Most employees have been issued with one-time-password tokens from Secure Computing; the token is used alongside a username and password to provide network access.

For a second group of employees who work in a multi-user workstation environment, biometric fingerprint readers were chosen instead to fit with their needs. Once the user has authenticated themselves to the network, OneSign Single Sign-On automatically logs that employee into the applications that they are allowed access to.

“Security of payment data is a critical concern for the whole retail sector,” said Neil Harrington, CFO, Mothercare. “The OneSign appliance provides us with strong authentication for our employees in the manner that best suits their individual access requirements, and reporting capabilities to track and trace staff application usage as they sign into applications. With OneSign, we are able to demonstrate our compliance with relevant security regulations swiftly and efficiently.”

All organisations that handle card payments are required to meet the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), a set of security requirements based on industry best practice. “Compliance with the PCI DSS standard remains a critical issue for most retailers, as it can be difficult to prove that employees are following company guidelines and that access to sensitive data is protected. By taking an identity-centric approach to security, organisations can monitor staff activity and show that company policies are being followed,” commented Omar Hussain, CEO, Imprivata. “Imprivata OneSign provides a solution to the issue of securing access to sensitive information and applications that is easy to implement, cost effective and easy to manage, making compliance with the areas of PCI DSS concerned with data simple.“

“As Imprivata OneSign can support multiple types of strong authentication natively, designing a solution that meets the needs of different users within the organisation is far simpler,” said Andy Davies, Director, Somerford Associates, the Imprivata partner involved in the implementation. “Without OneSign, Mothercare would have required multiple systems in place that would have increased the company’s management overhead considerably.”

About Imprivata
Imprivata is the enterprise authentication and access management appliance company delivering OneSign—an easy, smart and affordable appliance for securing networks, applications and building/IT access. The OneSign appliance includes OneSign Authentication Management, which increases network security by replacing Windows passwords with strong authentication options; OneSign Single Sign-On (SSO), which quickly and effectively solves password management, security and user access issues; and OneSign Physical/Logical, which integrates building and network access systems to enable location-based authentication. Based in Lexington, Mass., the company is privately-held with venture funding from Polaris Venture Partners, Highland Capital Partners and General Catalyst Partners and its solution is distributed through an established worldwide network of channel, ISV and technology partners. For more information, please visit www.imprivata.com.