The European Identity Awards 2012 honoring outstanding projects and initiatives in Identity Management, GRC (Governance, Risk Management and Compliance) and Cloud Security were presented yesterday by the analyst group KuppingerCole at their annual event, the European Identity Conference 2012 in Munich. Winners were chosen from a shortlist of exemplary projects and initiatives compiled by the analysts at KuppingerCole, end-user companies and vendors during the last 12 months. Award winners have all distinguished themselves through exceptional efforts in Identity and Access Management (IAM), Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC), and Cloud Security.
In the category "Best Identity and Access Management Project" the award went to Siemens AG. Siemens was awarded for their project DirX HRS service, which allows the use of hybrid cloud environments in a secure and verifiable way. The project is based on a flexible, scalable, standards-based architecture and uses dynamic, complex workflows to model the business rules for access approval.
In the category "Best Access Governance and Intelligence Project", the award goes to Europol. Europol has implemented a strategic IAM (Identity and Access Management) project, enabling centralized auditing across all IAM-modules. It is expandable to implement future requirements in a highly sensitive environment with a large number of external partners. It also involves real-time monitoring.
In the category "Best Cloud Security Project" two differently designed projects were awarded.
One award goes to Daimler AG for its project to secure its enterprise wide, cloud-based collaboration solution with strong authentication and an approach that ensures that sensitive credentials always remain within the corporate IT.
The second award goes to Sanofi S.A. for their approach to support for identity federation, which was implemented in a very short time frame and is characterized by a high level of acceptance of business users. This defines the foundation for further, timely support of business requirements in an agile business environment.
In the category "Best Approach to improving governance and mitigating risks", the prize goes to the Aéroports de Paris SA, the operator of the Paris airports. The company has implemented a privilege management solution that supports compliance requirements and integrates with security scanning solutions for the systems. This compliance processes have been optimized and complexity reduced.
The award for "Best Innovation / New Standard in Information Security" goes to OpenID Connect as a standard to support the authentication of users, which makes it easier to meet this requirement on the Internet and cloud environments.
The "Lifetime Achievement Award" goes to Prof. Dr. Reinhard Posch, CIO for the Austrian Federal Government, for his far-reaching, exemplary and successful efforts to implement identity and access management in public administration and in interaction with citizens.
Finally, a "Special Mobile Security Award" was given to Swisscom. The recipient of this award has been distinguished for its mobile ID solution, which, based on industry-standard hardware (SIM cards), enables secure authentication and other security services on mobile devices. Designed for easy use by business customers and – later - private users, the system is supported through managed services. This approach is an excellent example of how security can be increased in this critical area in a practical way.