The courts of Zurich – All things legal

The most stringent of security requirements for new extranet solution for 1,100 users

Project environment

Since 2001, the courts of the canton of Zurich have been counting on Axians GNS when it comes to IT security, consulting services and planning, realisation and implementation, as well as maintenance. Axians GNS works in close collaboration with their internal IT team to provide security solutions such as firewalls, e-mail content security and web filtering. This particular project also placed great emphasis on security.

Project requirements & goals

Our employees grew increasingly eager to work from home at times and be able to reliably access data and information on the move,”

explains Christian Pfund, Head of IT Security at the canton of Zurich’s courts, regarding the motivation behind this security project. Legal experts have to be able to access vast masses of stored information quickly and securely in order to prepare their court cases.

Implementation & project outcome

And to be firmly on the safe side, Axians designed a solution for the courts of Zurich’s new extranet that uses a SSL-VPN connection and an additional matrix card or scratch list authentication option. An intensive evaluation of the products showed that F5’s SSL-VPN solutions and Swiss company Ergon’s TAN authentication server Medusa were the perfect fit for generating the matrix cards. The solution is cost-effective and technically efficient with low recurring costs. The test installation was convincing, and the project took just four weeks from go-ahead to launch.

Christian Pfund summarises the successful integration as follows:

Combining SSL-VPN and matrix cards proved to be an excellent solution and has met with positive feedback from all of our employees across the board. Two major plus points: the solution is easy to use and mobile access is just as fast as at the office.