Single sign-on raises security at Scottish council

Council workers given less passwords to remember

Midlothian Council is using a single sign-on password system to increase its
IT security.

OneSign, a system provided by suppliers Imprivata and Enline, will make it easier for the local authority to protect business-critical applications, including council tax and revenue systems.

Doug Kinnaird, head of IT at Midlothian, says that in the past the council’s 1,500 staff found it difficult to keep track of their various passwords, which in some cases can be as many as six.

‘Previously, we had quite weak password security; many of the critical applications did not enforce things such as password changes,’ said Kinnaird. ‘We also picked up from an internal audit that a lot of people actually wrote down their passwords.’

Midlothian’s IT department has also saved time because of a significant reduction of helpdesk calls for password resets since the system was deployed.

OneSign allows Midlothian to make data supplied by its citizens and local businesses more secure, says Kinnaird.

‘Using the single sign-on will prevent multiple logins, so shared account use can be tracked much better. This creates better accountability of who has accessed data and what they have done with it,’ he said.