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ERS Biometrics Security Practices, Policies & Infrastructure
Updated on: 25th June 2018
With over 20 000 users worldwide accessing ERS Biometrics services, individuals, small, medium and large organizations count on ERS Biometrics security and data protection to meet their needs. We take security very seriously and have developed a comprehensive set of practices,
technologies and policies to help ensure your data is secure.
If you are currently maintaining your data on personal computers or your own servers, the odds are that we offer a better level of security than what you currently have in place.
This document outlines some of the mechanisms and processes we have implemented to help ensure that your data is protected.
Our security practices are grouped in four different areas:
Physical Security; Network Security;
People Processes and Redundancy and Business Continuity.
Physical Security
Our datacenters are hosted in some of the most secure facilities available today in locations that are protected from physical and logical attacks as well as from natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires, floods, etc.
7x24x365 Security.
The data centers that host your data are guarded seven days a week, 24 hours a day, each and every day of the year by private security guards.
Video Monitoring.
Each data center is monitored 7x24x365 with night vision cameras.
Controlled Entrance.
Access to the ERS Biometrics data centers is tightly restricted to a small group of pre-authorized personnel.
Biometric, two-Factor Authentication.
Two forms of authentication, including a biometric one, must be used together at the same time to enter a ERS Biometrics data center.
Undisclosed locations.
ERS Biometrics servers are located inside generic-looking, undisclosed locations that make them less likely to be a target of an attack.
Bullet-resistant walls.
ERS Biometrics servers are guarded safely inside bullet-resistant walls.
Network Security
Our network security team and infrastructure helps protect your data against the most sophisticated electronic attacks.
The following is a subset of our network security practices. These are intentionally stated in a very general way, since even knowing what tactics we use is something hackers crave.
If your organization requires further detail on our network security, please contact us.
Secure Communication.
All data transmission to ERS Biometrics services are encrypted using TLS 1.2 protocols,
and we use certificates issued by SHA 256 based CA ensuring that our users have a secure connection from their browsers to our service.
We use the latest and strong ciphers like AES_CBC/AES_GCM 256 bit/128 bit keys for encryption, SHA2 for message authentication and ECDHE_RSA as the key exchange mechanism.
IDS/IPS. Our network is gated and screened by highly powerful and certified Intrusion Detection / Intrusion Prevention Systems.
Control and Audit.
All accesses are controlled and also audited.
Secured / Sliced Down OS.
ERS Biometrics applications run inside a secured, sliced-down operating system engineered for security that minimizes vulnerabilities.
Virus Scanning.
Traffic coming into ERS Biometrics Servers is automatically scanned for harmful viruses using state of the art virus scanning protocols which are updated regularly.
People Processes
Designing and running data center infrastructure requires not just technology, but a disciplined approach to processes.
This includes policies about escalation, management, knowledge sharing, risk, as well as the day to day operations.
ERS Biometrics security team has years of experience in designing and operating data centers and continually improves our processes over time.
ERS Biometrics has developed a world class practices for managing security and data protection risk.
Select Employees.
Only employees with the highest clearance have access to our data center data. Employee access is logged and passwords are strictly regulated. We limit access to customer data to only a select few of these employees who need such access to provide support and troubleshooting on our customers' behalf.
Audits.
Audits are regularly performed and the whole process is reviewed by management.
As-Needed Basis.
Accessing data center information as well as customer data is done on an as-needed only basis, and only when approved by the customer (i.e. as part of a support incident), or by senior security management to provide support and maintenance.
Redundancy and Business Continuity
One of the fundamental philosophies of cloud computing is the acknowledgment and assumption that computer resources will at some point fail. We have designed our systems and infrastructure with that in mind.
Distributed Grid Architecture.
ERS Biometrics services run on a distributed grid architecture.
That means a server can fail without a noticeable impact on the system or our services.
In fact, on any given week, multiple servers fail without our customers ever noticing it.
The system has been designed knowing that server will eventually fail - we have implemented our infrastructure to account for that.
Power Redundancy.
ERS Biometrics configures its servers for power redundancy - from power supply to power delivery.
Internet Redundancy.
ERS Biometrics is connected to the world -and you- through multiple Tier-1 ISPs.
So if any one fails or experiences a delay, you can still reliably get to your applications and information.
Redundant Network Devices.
ERS Biometrics runs on redundant network devices (switches, routers, security gateways) to avoid any single point of failure at any level on the internal network.
Redundant Cooling and Temperature.
Intense computing resources generate a lot of heat, and thus need to be cooled to guarantee a smooth operation.
ERS Biometrics servers are backed by N+2 redundant HVAC systems and temperature control systems.
Geo Mirroring.
Customer data is mirrored in a separate geographic location for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity purposes.
Fire Prevention.
The ERS Biometrics data centers are guarded by industry-standard fire prevention and control systems.
Data Protection & Back-up.
User data is backed-up periodically across multiple servers, helping protect the data in the event of hardware failure or disaster.
Vulnerability Reporting
ERS Biometrics values the work done by security researchers in improving the security of our service offerings and we are committed to working with the community to verify, reproduce, and respond to legitimate reported vulnerabilities.
Please submit security issues at security@ersbio.co.za
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