Düsseldorf, 24 September 2004 - As a multinational management consultancy working primarily outside of Europe, Lufthansa Consulting GmbH, based in Cologne, depends above all on one thing: secure and reliable access to information, from all over the world. With the Nokia Secure Access System, staff members can access internal company resources, such as intranet-based calendars or Web mail, both comfortably and securely. To make this possible, the Nokia Secure Access System offers not only SSL gateway functionality, but also the ability to assign and automatically grant access rights according to employee identity, the end-device being used, the end-device's security parameters and the login time.

 

"Worldwide availability is critical for Lufthansa Consulting. With employees working almost exclusively outside of Europe and frequently in especially remote areas, a secure and dependable Internet connection allowing them to access in-house resources is one of the key conditions for successful project work", explains Stefan Schürholz, IT Manager for Lufthansa Consulting GmbH. 

 

Up until the early months of 2004, Lufthansa Consulting GmbH offered its employees external access to the company network by means of an IPSec-based VPN (Virtual Private Network). Although this is a popular system solution, it was not always adequate to meet the needs of the globally active company. The international Internet connections the staff usually required were often either not available or subject to interruptions, and wireless network coverage was not always sufficient, hindering effective project work.

 

As an SSL-based VPN solution with the 'session persistence' function, the Nokia Secure Access System offers a significant advantage here. Session persistence ensures that staff members can resume their work following an interruption in the connection, which occurs often in remote regions where network capacity is not fully adequate to meet demand. Without this function, a broken connection would mean lost data that have to be entered all over again.

 

Simple installation and extended language functions

 

Installation was completed with minimal effort. For the company network, all that was needed was a Nokia appliance equipped with Nokia Secure Access System software installed behind the firewall. This appliance has the job of receiving SSL data traffic coming from the remote user's browser and then forwarding it in decoded form to the company's intranet server. SSL-based encoding thus ensures that the company network can be accessed while maintaining an appropriate level of security.

 

Extended language support is planned in future as a further advantage offered by the Nokia Secure Access System. Employees, partners, manufacturers and suppliers will be able to use both company and external devices to access the desired applications - all in their language of choice. Version 1.1, for example, makes use of one single gateway appliance to provide simultaneous support for at least ten different languages (including English, Japanese, German, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese). Furthermore, translations into at least 25 different languages can be saved in just one gateway, supporting most international character sets. User navigation, system messages, the User's Guide, and the System Administrator's Guide can thus be offered in several languages.

 

Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia is dedicated to enhancing people's lives and productivity by providing easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, and solutions for imaging, games, media, mobile network operators and businesses. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on five major exchanges.

 

Lufthansa Consulting GmbH is a multinational management consulting firm. The company employs more than 160 staff members from 17 countries, offering comprehensive solutions for the aviation industry. Corporate headquarters are in Cologne, with additional branches in Frankfurt am Main and Los Angeles. Project offices in Jakarta, Manila, New York, Libreville, Gabon and Antananarivo, Madagascar guarantee the worldwide availability of consulting services.

 

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