E.ON Global Commodities, the largest energy and utilities trading company in Germany, had a dilemma faced by many organizations today: How could it govern users’ access, protect sensitive data and maintain compliance to pass a security audit and prove it? This was a question Carsten Mielke, the head of service management at E.ON, had to answer. After facing a red audit, high-level board members and the CEO had a vested interest in a governance solution that would not only temporarily resolve their audit problems but give them a repeatable solution to help remain compliant for years to come.

Preventing Toxic Combinations

Beyond the compliance requirement, E.ON was also interested in upgrading its security posture. Along with many other organizations, it was witnessing instances of rogue trading around the world and the millions of dollars in losses that followed. One of the key security compliance areas to consider was managing separation of duties. As a large trading company, E.ON must ensure that there are no “toxic combinations,” such as the same person entering a trade and then confirming it, which can lead to fraud. In addition, E.ON must be able to prove that employees in certain areas of the business are not allowed access to specific applications. Trading carries 80 percent of the risk in the organization, so E.ON moved forward with a solution that minimizes that risk. These security concerns are now solved with IBM Security Identity Governance.

Audit and Compliance Control

In this YouTube video, you can hear the benefits of the solution firsthand from Carsten Mielke. From an audit perspective, E.ON can now quickly and easily produce an automatically generated report, which the auditors accept as evidence. From a security and IT optimization standpoint, Mielke explains there is much more visibility and transparency. The key value this brings is the ability to efficiently view employee rights and roles to determine whether taking specific actions is compliant and secure. The video ends with Mielke saying that the IBM Security Identity Governance solution, and the work his team does with it, helps E.ON understand its business and business processes much better than before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rSP8FYFYU4

To get a better understanding of how identity governance solutions can help resolve your security issues, watch our on-demand webcast about “the good, the bad and the ugly” of identity governance featuring Mielke, along with Andrea Rossi, IBM’s guru on identity governance and administration.

Download: How identity governance became a key compliance and risk control