Police places staff data in safe custody

West Yorkshire Police has deployed a secure user data access system as it prepares to join a national police directory.

The UK's fourth largest police force, which has about 10,000 staff using its systems, wanted to eliminate duplication when updating users' access rights.

It also had to comply with guidelines produced by the Police Information Technology Organisation for integrating its data with a central personnel directory, dubbed 118 directory.

The force created a secure authentication framework using components chosen to fit with its IT infrastructure. 'The most immediate benefit is saved time and effort for my administrators and everyone else in the force. They get the services they want when they want them,' said Paul Friday, West Yorkshire Police information systems director.

A single directory for managing users' access rights was created using Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003, with Windows XP running on the desktop.

Lynx Technology and the Oxford Computer Group helped integrate the framework with existing systems. The framework is driven by changes made to the personnel files maintained by human resources.

See also:

Authentication tools tackle identity theft

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