Borsen (Dagbladet Børsen) develop a more secure environment for remote working

Borsen is Denmark’s leading business published and online newspaper, covering global, European and national economic stories. It is very well respected with a significant readership. Borsen had a remote access system in place but it was only secured using user names and passwords.

Using remote working to secure journalistic integrity

Borsen is Denmark’s leading financial newspaper, with a workforce of 230. It has an excellent reputation for producing independent, thought- provoking editorial content and breaking important national business stories from Denmark and international stories from Europe and beyond.

The IT department has had a remote access system in place for years, allowing journalists to work from home and when they were on the move. This enables them to file copy at any time of day, essential for a news machine that needs feeding on a 24-7 basis.

However, the IT department had grave concerns, as the remote access to systems and applications was only secured with user names and passwords. IT Manager Brian Skibby was more than aware of how vulnerable the media house was, knowing that almost two thirds of network breaches involve weak or stolen passwords. “The fact that the security of our entire system was only as good as our weakest password, definitely gave me sleepless nights,” explained Brian. “I was more than aware that we needed a system that would lock down access and ultimately, protect the security of our news machine and the journalistic integrity of our people.”

Using authentication to lock down systems

Desperate to replace its password only protection and with an unsettling feeling that they needed to do more, Borsen approached its IT partner, Ezenta, who worked with them to conduct a 360 degree security audit and highlight any vulnerabilities. Unsurprisingly for Brian and his team, user authentication and the security around remote access was one. As a result, Censornet MFA was selected as the best solution to fit Borsen’s business requirements.

Borsen’s main objective was to lock down security for its 230 users and prevent hackers from breaching its systems. Using multi-factor authentication (MFA) and its method of using a number of variables to validate users and providing passcodes via employees’ phones – a piece of hardware they would rarely be without – was considered a perfect fit and would be cost effective, easy to manage and importantly, easy for its journalists to use.

Brian affirms, “Censornet MFA was a no brainer. We recognized that hacking is on the rise and as Denmark’s leading business publication, we could be a prime target. We needed to lock down systems quickly, preventing hackers from gaining access, whilst at the same time, focusing on ease of use for users.”

The implementation went very smoothly and to gain user “buy-in” Brian and his team conducted a series of training sessions, presenting on why authentication was so important and the security breaches that it could prevent.

The benefits for Borsen

Remote access to systems is vital in the production of news, enabling journalists to log in using any device to log editorial content on Borsen’s publishing system. But to do this securely is absolutely vital.

Brian explains that it has given the whole company confidence that they now have the right level of security in place to secure log ins and user authentication, “We really have no worries these days around remote access to our systems and the constant threat of hackers being able to access our network easily has disappeared. At last I can sleep easy at night!”