Oregon Public Utility Turns To Smart Card Technology To Improve Physical, Network Security

By Brent Dirks · January 14, 2008

With concern increasing for the nation’s power and water utility providers to improve security across the board, the Eugene Water & Electric Board in Oregon is turning to smart card technology to protect both physical and network assets.

The largest utility provider in Oregon, EWEB is rolling out Aladdin Knowledge System’s eToken smart card solution to provide building access and strong authentication for employees to the utility’s data network.

The combined token, which will allow only authorized personnel enter the organization’s facilties, log on to the computer network and access business data and applications from remote locations, ensures compliance with security standards mandated by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

Mark Ellister, EWEB's senior security specialist, said combining physical and logical access into one device will help increase security for the utility provider.

"As a large public utility that prioritizes the safety of our water and power supply, EWEB evaluated several options that would allow us to further enhance our overall security and NERC compliance," Ellister said. "We selected the Aladdin eToken strong authentication device due to its proven level of security and flexibility, as well as its simple integration with proximity technology for facility access. In a multi-platform environment, being able to select a single product that functions with multiple OS models is highly advantageous. Aladdin eToken doesn't lock you into one vendor or one technology.

We see EWEB's implementation of Aladdin eToken as a powerful step toward boosting our overall security and protecting access to sensitive data that our community's water and power supplies rely upon."


About the author

Brent Dirks
Brent Dirks is e-news editor for Security Products magazine.


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