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Enterprise Content Management - ECM

INSIDE

ISIS Papyrus provides ECM applications with the industry’s first deep-integrated application and system security.

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ISIS Papyrus - SECURITY WHITE PAPER

Document Control and Security

The Papyrus Document System provides perfect control over how, when, and by whom your documents are captured,  created, accessed, changed, deleted and archived. The benefits of using Papyrus security are:

•  Reduced potential damage risk
•  Increased productivity across all document applications
•  Simplified log-on procedures
•  Substantially lower cost for ensuring regulatory compliance

The following security concepts are implemented in Papyrus:

•  Authentication is equivalent to showing your drivers license at the ticket counter at the airport. It is used to identify who has for example, signed a document in a business process. Many countries have legally validated the use of Electronic Signatures, as has the United States since October 1st, 2000. Regulation does usually not specify a digital signature technology, but many experts consider that Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) will play an important role.

The integrated SmartCard User Authentication functionality in Papyrus provides secure user authentication. To log on to ­Papyrus the card itself (authentication by possession) as well as a PIN (authentication by knowledge) or optional biometric fingerprint identification (authentication by identity). Logon authentication is usually achieved by trying to enforce a password policy. This involves requesting a minimum password length, minimum password complexity, enforced password aging, and prohibiting password reuse as well as inactivity time-outs. All this does not prevents users from writing passwords down or sharing them with others. The identity of the security administrator is also not ensured. Many existing applications use password transfers in clear text, and the central login creates issues with offline use or with network problems.

Using a SmartCard with fingerprint reader ensures a user’s identity and enforces compliance without the possibility for human error. Once the card is pulled from the reader, all ­Papyrus applications (optionally the workstation) are locked out. The user certificate and fingerprint is securely stored on the card and thus authentication does not require network access.

•  Confidentiality is ensured within Papyrus by encrypting the data transmissions and all data objects stored. For Web applications Papyrus uses HTTPs, the secure version of HTTP, the communication protocol of the World Wide Web. It provides authentication and encrypted communication for browser access to a WebPortal server.

•  Authorization defines what a person, once identified, is permitted to do with an application or system resource. This is usually determined by being a member of a particular group, equivalent to checking for your ticket when you go to the theatre. Papyrus Objects uses an integrated authorization system, to ensure that no user or program can access or do anything without the proper authorization.

Once the corporate organization is defined in principle,
the application roles to be implemented with Papyrus need to be defined.

Each user receives at least one ROLE. This ROLE has defined either a privilege string or an actual method of an object. To define which resource INSTANCES a user is allowed to access, also a POLICY authorization is needed, which has to match the POLICY defined for the object. The user may be allowed to perform a method for a particular type of letter, but is only allowed to access this type of letter of a specific department. The Papyrus LDAP Adapter allows the use of existing user roles available in LDAP directories, such as RACF.

•  Accountability is achieved by a combination of user authentication and setting up the auditing functions for a workflow and its related documents. As you have identified the user by his SmartCard and fingerprint, his ROLE and POLICY ensure what he can access, and all activities of the user can also be written into an audit log. Thus the user can at all times be held accountable for his actions. This is mostly important for System or Security Administrators, Change Management Administrators, Production Managers or users who sign off application or document changes.

•  Authenticity: Once a document becomes a corporate record or achieves a legal status as part of a contract, the workflow state is changed and the document is encrypted and digitally signed. The document can now only be opened by authorized parties and as long as the signature is intact, the authenticity of the original can be verified without the need for storing the document to Write-Only media. Only users who have the authority to access the public key of the document can actually read it.

•  Auditing is the tracking of activity by users as per the systems definition. This stored information allows authorized users to conduct audits. Typical audits are related to changes in security definitions or which way a document was routed and who accessed it. This is accomplished by using security functions such as authentication and data logging. Standard Papyrus document design, scheduling and distribution features controls when and which reports are formatted how and distributed to whom.