Aktia

Key figures

• Founded in 1825
• 90 branches, over 1,000 employees
• Investment banking, asset management, life and non-life insurance

The context

Aktia, a key Finnish financial player with impeccable IT security…
Founded in 1825, Aktia Bank is today one of the largest deposit banks on the Finnish market. It operates in the traditional banking sectors: investment banking, asset management and life and risk insurance. With 90 branches throughout Finland and an efficient customer service,
Aktia Bank plc manages the bank accounts of almost 300,000 customers every day.
In 2008, following the acquisition of several companies in the financial sector, an operation which lasted two years, Aktia Bank plc had to continue to guarantee an optimum level of IT security for its customers as well as for its own data. To address this issue, Aktia Bank plc chose to equip itself with an IT security solution common to all its entities: a Web Application Firewall (WAF).

The need

The solution sought by the bank had to meet clearly identified internal challenges:

• Protect all of Aktia’s entities against cybercrime using a reliable, global IT security solution.
• Comply with the requirements linked to the PCI-DSS standard.
• Guarantee a secure and reliable SOA architecture.

As Thomas Malmberg, Security Consultant at Aktia Bank plc, points out:
“Rather than each of Aktia Bank plc’s entities having its own level of security, we wanted to homogenise all the applications by relying on a common IT security solution that was beyond reproach and infallible.”

The solution

WAAP Gateway, UBIKA’s Web Application Firewall chosen by Aktia to secure its applications…

Following an invitation to tender, UBIKA was selected as the company offering the best WAF on the market. The mock-up lasted a week, then after a short one-month in-house testing period, WAAP Gateway was gradually implemented across all the group’s structures. The Finnish consultancy company nSense, a local partner of UBIKA, played an important role in the decision-making of Aktia Bank plc’s IT department:
<nSense was able to guide us in our choice and accompanied us step by step in the deployment of UBIKA's WAAP Gateway solution," reports Thomas Malmberg.

From the outset, the Finnish bank has complied with the PCIDSS standard imposed on all websites whose activities involve bank transaction data.
Its various entities, acquired over time, have also had to comply with this standard. WAAP Gateway, UBIKA's Web application firewall, was therefore a natural choice:
“WAAP Gateway met our expectations with regard to the PCI-DSS standard; it is natively compatible, transparent and scalable,” says Thomas Malmberg.

The peace of mind of Aktia’s 300,000 customers guaranteed by WAAP Gateway…

The WAAP Gateway solution has gradually been placed on the front end of all Aktia Bank plc entities’ applications. Today, Aktia Bank plc continues to bring new applications online, in particular XML and Web Services.
Here again, the choice of WAAP Gateway has been confirmed, as it provides adequate protection for this type of application, without any additional installation.
Thomas Malmberg describes the UBIKA teams as extremely responsive and available for technical support and advice. The quality of this relationship played a decisive role during the mock-up phase and Thomas Malmberg even stresses:
“The attentive support we encountered during this period, which influenced our choice, is still a strong point in the relationship between Aktia Bank plc and UBIKA today.”

The expert’s opinion

“UBIKA is the only company to provide a Web and XML Application Firewall in a single solution.”
“Our experience with UBIKA’s support has been excellent. The response time is very short and the expertise of the support engineers is of a high standard. Access to support is a valuable asset when configuring new applications”.

Thomas Malmberg
Security Consultant
Aktia