Helvetia is an internationally active Swiss insurance company that looks back on a 160-year track record of success and customer satisfaction as an all-lines insurer.
Harald Müller
Head of Web Access Services, Helvetia Group
The goal: To set up protective network components and access mechanisms that not only fulfill strict security and compliance specifications, but also are able to meet the integration and operating requirements under a high data load and for a large number of users, including 6000 internal staff and up to 20'000 customers and partners.
The process: nevisProxy, a component of the NEVIS Security Suite, was installed as a secure reverse proxy with its integrated web application firewall (WAF). nevisProxy serves as a primary central entry point for all web traffic to the online services, thus controlling user access and protecting the web applications from attacks of all kinds. The convenient access of customers, partners and staff to services has been maintained by integrating Helvetia's web applications in a company-wide single sign-on (SSO), provided by nevisAuth, another component of the NEVIS Security Suite, which supports a wide range of authentication measures and technologies. Accordingly, access to the web applications is managed centrally.
The result: A state-of-the-art security portal that withstands even the most sophisticated threats without sacrificing operability nor user convenience. The seamless interaction between nevisProxy and nevisAuth forms the foundation of a consolidated security infrastructure with support for Java- and Microsoft-based technologies and a total of four authentication mechanisms (SAML with different bindings, password/userID, Kerberos, and 2-factor authentication with mTAN). By uniting numerous platforms, technologies and applications, the central access management infrastructure enables a rapid SSO integration of new partners and customers.
In over 160 years, the Helvetia Group has grown into a successful international insurance group. Helvetia is one of the leading all-line insurers in its home market of Switzerland. With the countries Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain, which have been combined to form the Market Area Europe, the company has a second strong pillar. With its Specialty Markets market area, Helvetia is also present in France and in selected regions worldwide. Some of its investment and financing activities are managed through subsidiaries and fund companies in Luxembourg. The Group is headquartered in St.Gallen, Switzerland.
Helvetia is active in the life and non-life business, and also offers customised specialty lines and reinsurance cover. With some 11,500 employees, the company provides services to more than 7 million customers.
Effective protection for all externally accessible web applications
Increased security for Helvetia's website
Integration of several platforms and technologies
Implementation of web SSO for customers, partners and internal users
Integration of Helvetia with IG-B2B (portal of Swiss insurance brokers)
Flexible integration of additional external partner companies via identity federation
