Newcastle Building Society, one of the UK’s largest
mutual societies, is rolling out advanced encryption and digital
rights management software to its business partners to control
access to financial information.
The technology will help the society, which provides back-office
services to other financial services organisations, to meet the
demands of Financial Services Authority and data protection
regulations.
The Sealedmedia software allows the building society to control
access to e-mail and other sensitive documents once they have left
the company’s offices.
“It could be that you send a revised copy of a document and deny
access to the old copy to prevent people accessing the old
documentation,” said Pat Watson, information security manager at
Newcastle Building Society.
If a contract negotiation with a business partner falls through,
the software could be used to prevent the business partner
accessing confidential information disclosed during the
discussions, she said.
The building society uses the software to encrypt external
e-mails, data stored on CDs that might be sent through the post,
and to control remote users’ access to sensitive data.
The software limits the length of time a document can be
accessed offline, so if a remote user’s laptop is stolen,
documents are less likely to fall into the wrong hands.
“If we transfer customer data when we are dealing with valuers,
solicitors and the like, protecting against identity theft is of
key importance,” said Watson.
The building society began investigating the technology two
years ago to help it meet the requirements of the BS7799
information security standard, which calls for information to be
assessed according to its sensitivity.