About Gunnebo – Security Company Gunnebo Troax
Troax is member of the Gunnebo security group, suppliers of integrated security solutions for bank, retail and sites in need of high security protection. Gunnebo security group has annual revenues of MEUR 730 and 6,800 employees. Troax was founded in 1955 in Hillerstorp, Sweden. The group presently consists of 13 sales companies in various countries plus distributors in new markets. Production sites are located in UK and Sweden. Gunnebo Troax has 360 employees with revenues approximating MEUR 65. Troax is the World Leading supplier and producer of industrial panel and partition systems. Troax systems are marketed in three market segments: the automation and robotics industry, materials handling and logistics, and property protection.
Gunnebo Troax is a company working with physical security and is part of the Gunnebo group. Its products are used to keep robot manufacturing cells safe, to partition spaces in logistics environments and to restrict access in buildings. The physical product is steel mesh screens, but the value proposition is security, and the company must run its IT operations accordingly.
“Gunnebo Troax is a security company. We need to protect our IT assets with smart user authentication and we need to be able to show our customers that we have a 360 view on all aspects of security. Nordic Edge’s One Time Password solution with SMS to cell phones is secure, easy to deploy internationally and our customers understand it”, said Göran Johansson, IT Coordinator, Gunnebo Troax AB.
The VPN technology used does not depend on a specific client, and it would be counterproductive to rely on an authentication solution that required distribution and support of any kind of device. Nordic Edge’s one time password (OTP) solution uses a delivery device that is already in place and maintained by its user base – personal cell phones.
The Challenge
Gunnebo Troax has an international sales force that uses a VPN for accessing applications while traveling. Gunnebo needs to protect its IT assets, and strong authentication for the VPN is required. Several solutions for delivery of one time passwords have been tested, but all relied on some sort of proprietary hardware. It was notoriously difficult to get everybody in the organization to take proper care of these devices, and they could easily be shared among users, lower the security level of the total system. As a security company, Gunnebo Troax also has a need to show customers that it has a complete view on security and employs smart solutions.
The Solution
Nordic Edge’s one time password (OTP) solution delivering passwords via SMS to the users’ cell phones. A legitimate user can log in from any computer with Internet access, and do not need any proprietary hardware to get the one time password.
The Nordic Edge software is installed on a Juniper SSL VPN server, delivered and installed by Nordic Edge business partner Flexible Networks Nordic AB.
“We have tried using proprietary portable code generating devices, but the administration was killing us. It was impossible to convince our international sales force that they needed to take care of them, not forget them in places and not lend them to colleagues. With SMS and cell phones as delivery mechanism for OTP’s, we’re not only saving on administration, we are also getting a higher level of security since we can be sure that it is actually the cell phone owner we are logging as a user of our applications”, said Göran Johansson.
The Result
“The concept of one time passwords SMS’ed to the user’s cell phone is easy to explain, regardless of local culture and degree of IT maturity in the organization. And you don’t need to enforce it, everybody keep track of their phones.”
Göran Johansson.
