1. Quest® Defender Provides Secure, Affordable
Two-Factor Authentication for Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City, Okla., boasts a population of 558,000 residents and owns one of the largest city owned
and operated municipal Wi-Fi mesh network in the world. This network encompasses over 620 square
miles to date and provides access to over 150 different applications that are vital to public safety and
city operations. The city’s information technology department provides support for technology-based
communication and information systems, enabling the delivery of efficient and effective services to city
employees.
To improve the security of its networks and systems, Oklahoma City turned to Quest for a feature-rich,
two-factor authentication solution.
The Challenge
Oklahoma City’s IT department is responsible for protecting all of the city’s data. Most users, however,
used to authenticate to the system using a simple username and password, which created a serious
security risk.
“Passwords are a security issue because users don’t like to change them regularly,” said Steven Eaton,
information security manager for Oklahoma City. “In addition, if longer more complex passwords are
required, users start writing them down because they can’t remember them, defeating their purpose of
enhancing security.”
As a proactive and forward-thinking organization, the city’s IT group decided to implement security
recommendations for user access based on best practices. “We realized we needed to step up to two-
factor authentication to ensure the security of our network,” stated Eaton.
Two-factor authentication typically combines “something you know” (such as a username and password
or pin) with “something you have” (such as a smart card or hardware token) to verify that users logging in
are who they say they are.
The city already had a two-factor authentication solution in place for remote access, but it was expensive.
Moreover, it needed a solution that would integrate with Active Directory (AD), and deployed easily across
the enterprise to more than 5,000 users.
The Quest Solution
The city’s IT group carefully evaluated solutions from five major vendors. Following extensive evaluation
and testing of the technologies available, Quest Defender emerged as the clear winner. Defender
bases all administration and identity management on Active Directory, thus it could use the city’s
existing investment in AD and eliminate the costs involved in setting up and maintaining the additional
infrastructure needed for other two-factor solutions. “We try to leverage existing investments whenever
possible,” stated Eaton. “Since Defender integrates so seamlessly with Active Directory we were able to
accomplish that in addition to being able to use Active Directory as the single source for authentication
credentials and management.” Moreover, Defender works with any OATH-compliant hardware token, and
is easy to roll out.
In addition, the IT group was pleased to find that Defender was compatible with encryption software it
also planned to deploy. “We were able to get all of it to work together seamlessly, which was a big plus for
us,” reported Eaton.
“Our users like Defender better than
passwords. They recognize that it actually
saves them time since they no longer
have to remember longer more complex
passwords or call the help desk for
password resets.”
– Steven Eaton
IS Information Security Manager
Oklahoma City
Overview
Headquarters
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Services
City services
Critical Needs
To improve network security by
implementing two-factor authentication
Solution
Quest® Defender
Results
Provides affordable two-factor
•
authentication for all employees
Improves user productivity by
•
eliminating the need to remember
longer more complex passwords
without sacrificing security
Enabled gradual, seamless rollout, with
•
token self-registration and temporary
token assignments
Case Study