Security
At Hyperspheric Solutions we take information security extremely seriously
but believe that the application of information security measures should be an
enabling feature of a system rather than a disabling one.
Authentication and Single Sign-On
Our secure authentication technology can be used to control access
to a single, isolated system, but can also be used for Single Sign-On (SSO) across multiple systems.
SSO allows a user to supply their login details just once in a browser session, and then be
logged on automatically to other systems as they browse - this can be ideal when a user needs access
to several web sites, such as that of their own organisation and those of strategic partners.
For examples of applications using this technology see our Case Studies.
Access Control and Authorisation
Our systems often have to support open access to public information on the one hand but
highly restricted access to private information on the other. Our security model allows access to records
to be controlled down to the level of indivudal user and groups and allows different types of access - e.g. read/write -
to be specified separately.
This degree of control can be used, for example, to support Data Protection Act and Freedom of
Information Act requirements, as well as to provide closed collaborative areas for project teams and communities of practice.
Interoperability and Security
Our security technology is, of course, integrated with our support for interoperability.
All system activities that involve interoperability - whether user-initiated,
such as federated searching, or machine-initiated, such as scheduled metadata harvesting -
take place within well-defined security contexts. We use industry-standard technologies to
validate incoming security contexts so we know - for certain - the identity of the
user or machine that is initiating communication and can therefore respond accordingly.
With this approach, a user performing a federated
search can retrieve the same information from a remote system that they would see
if they logged on to the system and searched it directly. This powerful feature
allows portal sites to be created that aggregate information from a range of
systems yet still honour the access control policies in place on those systems.
This is particularly useful in situations where devolved management of sensitive
information is required but aggregations of that information are also of value.
Benefits:
- A coherent security model extends from user logon through
to interoperability between systems and unlocks the potential value of information.
- Single Sign-On simplifies system access for users (e.g. there are fewer passwords to remember)
and facilitates information sharing between strategic partners.
- Access control technology allows access to information to be controlled to
the level of individuals and groups.