Improved data security for lifesavers: the new secure portal for central identity management

A centralised security infrastructure for a decentralised organisation

Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe (JUH) has around 23,000 fulltime employees and 40,000 volunteers, who work in nine state associations and more than 200 regional, district and local associations. So JUH is very decentralised, which of course makes sense when working on site. But when it comes to digitalisation and the establishment of uniform communication structures, a heterogeneous structure can be a complex challenge – especially with respect to IT security. Jörg Hartmann, Head of IT at the Hesse/Rhineland-Palatinate/Saarland state association, explained:

‘Our employees need access to a variety of IT applications – such as deployment plans, web mail and checklists – to carry out their work. However, such access was organised very differently from one state association to the next. We wanted to change that, which is why we decided to set up a centralised, secure portal.’

A standardised secure portal for more than 60, 000 employees

Simple, secure, efficient are the boxes that the future secure portal needed to tick. The Airlock Secure Access Hub was ultimately the chosen solution, and was subsequently implemented in collaboration with a managed security service provider. The client had two main reasons for choosing Airlock. The Secure Access Hub is an integrated complete solution that is guaranteed to be highly futureproof thanks to its structure with WAF, API Gateway and IAM including 2FA. And Airlock is the perfect choice for complex tasks in heterogeneous organisations.

The example of Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe clearly illustrates what this means in concrete terms: when nursery workers access work schedules, emergency doctors view checklists on site and disaster relief workers send emails securely, including abroad – the Secure Access Hub enables all employees to benefit from central access to exposed services. After all, the advantage of the Airlock upstream solution is that many users can use many downstream applications across many end devices using a single, standardised access solution.

Risk-based identity management with Airlock

The challenge with respect to security technology is that access privileges need to be managed differently, particularly with a heterogeneous employee structure. Here, the Secure Access Hub relies on strong authentication, whereby access is granted in a risk-based and adaptive manner for different user groups. This ensures that sensitive personal data is perfectly protected at all times. But, at the same time, convenient operation is crucial for an aid organisation. The balancing act between security and usability was solved with the two-factor authentication (2FA) solution from Airlock, which users are identified with by means of push messages and smartphones. This ensures easy access to important data, even in an emergency. Another special feature of this particular case was the different compliance requirements. For example, the individual federal states and districts, not to mention the Evangelical Church in Germany, which Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe is under the control of, all have separate data protection legislation (the Evangelical Church in Germany has the Data Protection Act of the Evangelical Church in Germany, known as the ‘DSG-EKD’ for short). This challenge was also solved with the high-performance solution Airlock IAM.

Quality in technology – and in day-to-day collaboration

So, on a technical level, Airlock is really impressive. But for large organisations, other aspects that are more in the background are relevant, for example potential customization and, above all else, simple migration processes and reliable support. As Jörg Hartmann stated: ‘As a leading provider in the healthcare sector, we attach a great deal of importance to high quality in our IT. You can truly see the high promised quality during the implementation process and when using the solution day to day. Not only has Airlock won us over in this regard – it often even thrills us too.’