RSA Security Inc. (NASDAQ:RSAS) today announced that Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE:CFC), a Fortune 500 company and leading diversified financial services provider, has implemented the RSA Keon(R) CA digital certificate management solution. The purpose of the deployment is to issue and manage the electronic certificates to facilitate secure communications with Countrywide's customers and employees.
The in-house RSA Keon certificate authority (CA) has replaced the company's outsourced, third-party CA vendor, which has resulted in the reduction of administration time and costs associated with the management of digital certificates. Countrywide conducted a cost-benefit analysis comparing the two digital certificate management methods, and determined that the installation of the RSA Keon certificate authority within its own environment is projected to save the company a significant amount over the next ten years.
"Over the past ten months, Countrywide has successfully issued several hundred SSL certificates using the RSA Keon certificate authority. We have benefited from significant cost-savings, reliability, quick issuance of certificates, and flexibility with licensing requirements," said Arlene Tellez, who managed this project for Countrywide Financial. "Additionally, migration from an outsourced solution to the RSA Keon solution did not incur significant implementation time or loss in access or productivity. As a strategic security solutions vendor, RSA Security has been responsive to our needs, and we are very satisfied with our decision to implement an in-house PKI solution."
"With RSA Keon software in place, we enhanced administrative controls to monitor compliance with various legal and regulatory requirements," said Scott H. Wallace, Manager, Enterprise Information Security Operations.
As a leading provider of consumer and business-to-business financial services in domestic and international markets, e-commerce continues to grow within Countrywide's several business segments, and so does its need to manage risk. By implementing the open, scalable RSA Keon CA solution, Countrywide has been able to work toward its requirements for independently managing SSL certificates and build a scalable certificate infrastructure to manage and store digital credentials.
Through the use of the RSA Keon solution, Countrywide controls the digital certificate issuing process, which in turn allows the company to develop, deploy and scale secure applications and e-business services by automating and centralizing the management of digital certificates. The in-house CA, based on RSA Keon technology, has reduced the time that was previously spent on administrative tasks and the lag time in certificate issuance that was experienced with the former, outsourced solution.
RSA Keon CA software is an industry leading digital certificate management system, designed to enable companies to conduct secure, cost effective e-business by providing a flexible, scalable system for managing digital identities. RSA Keon Root Signing service extends the value of RSA Keon digital certificate management software by enabling enterprises to "chain" their certificate authority to RSA Security's trusted root, thereby ensuring widely recognized and trusted SSL and client certificates.
"Establishing security and building trust with customers and partners is critical to the success of diverse financial service organizations such as Countrywide," said John Worrall, vice president of worldwide marketing at RSA Security. "The information that is stored within an institution's network and accessed for e-business transactions must be highly secure and, most importantly, the process cannot be bogged down with administrative procedures and exorbitantly high maintenance costs."