Entrust Customers

Schlumberger: A Secure Foundation for Growth

Abstract
When Schlumberger set out to develop a comprehensive system for securing its corporate data and electronic communications, the company faced a two-fold challenge. Like any global enterprise, it had to address issues of scalability, manageable deployment and integration. At the same time, being a worldwide provider of information services, the company also had to arrive at a solution that would demonstrate its technological expertise to its customers.

Combining its own smart-card technology with Entrust Secure Messaging Solution, Schlumberger built a powerful and versatile security platform. The strength of the collaboration between the two companies has led to a lasting relationship.

The Need
A vast corporation that today employs more than 80,000 people in nearly 100 countries, Schlumberger provides information-based solutions to customers in the oil and gas, finance, transport, telecommunications, and energy and utilities industries as well as public-sector organizations.

In 1998, Schlumberger recognized that due to a reliance on electronic communications for global business operations, it needed to have more efficient, cost-effective and secure means for collaboration and sharing. To manage the security risks of communicating by e-mail, for example, Schlumberger needed to develop a sophisticated enterprise-wide security solution that would protect sensitive information, while also making it accessible based on appropriate permissions to its employees around the world.

From the beginning, Schlumberger recognized that its security solution would have to include two tightly integrated components:

1. a security management system to support a broad range of security solutions including:
   • secure e-mail - to provide security for internal and external e-mail communications, allowing employees to share information regardless of geographic location;
   • secure desktop - to protect sensitive information from being accessed by an unauthorized user;
   • certificate-based virtual private network (VPN) - to provide strongly-authenticated network access to remote employees and between Schlumberger sites.
2. a smart-card system based on advanced SchlumbergerSema smart card technology utilizing the Entrust certificate to control access to physical, logical and information resources.

The bottom line was also an important factor. Schlumberger was seeking a solution that would be efficient as well as help in reducing overhead costs.

The Challenges
Schlumberger realized that there would be many challenges in moving more sensitive communications electronically while maintaining a level of trust.

Given the size and technological diversity of Schlumberger, one of its main challenges was to find a means to design and deploy a solution that would be flexible enough to accommodate a broad range of email programs such as Microsoft® Outlook™, QUALCOMM® Eudora Pro®, and Netscape® Messenger. The next requirement for the security vendor was the integration of its solution with Schlumberger smart cards, so as to enable two-factor authentication, thus providing for a higher level of trust.

Scalability was another significant consideration. Schlumberger is a large enterprise with a global and expanding network. Any solution adopted needed to have the capacity to accommodate growth. Schlumberger determined early on that scalability was essential, thus narrowing the list of potential vendors.

Due to their size and global presence, Schlumberger also required a solution that could be deployed quickly and intuitively, requiring little end-user training. The organization was seeking a solution that would not be disruptive, not involve changing the way in which employees worked nor require that they understand or manage their own security.

In addition to the above challenges, Schlumberger required a flexible security management system that could be leveraged to support a wide variety of security solutions.

The Solution
To secure its corporate data and electronic communications, Schlumberger chose the Entrust Secure Messaging Solution. Entrust proved to be the vendor that could support the existing Schlumberger infrastructure, integrate it with SchlumbergerSema smart cards and provide a security foundation upon which Schlumberger could deploy future security solutions. Essentially, Entrust was a one-stop security shop for Schlumberger.

Powered by a proven and consistent security-management system, the Entrust Secure Messaging Solution provides two-factor authentication, a stronger level of privacy by enabling end-to-end encryption of messages and attachments, as well as strong identification and verification of user credentials.

The solution works with a variety of messaging environments and was integrated into the existing Schlumberger infrastructure, allowing employees to share information and collaborate with co-workers all over the world using a variety of secure e-mail applications.

The solution is also transparent to the user and does not affect their normal work habits. Due to the fully automated key and certificate lifecycle management, the user is not required to understand the security or manage their own security. This has reinforced user confidence and has accelerated the adoption of the technology by Schlumberger employees. This transparent automation provides for a more scalable solution that can support the current size and future growth requirements of Schlumberger.

Based on a consistent, proven security management infrastructure, the Entrust Secure Messaging Solution can be easily extended to provide VPN, Secure Web Portal, and many other security solutions. In addition, the solution supports a single login to Windows® and other secure desktop applications, alleviating the need for users to have to remember numerous IDs and Passwords.

Designed to work with SchlumbergerSema smart cards and Entrust's market leading public-key infrastructure technology, the solution enabled Schlumberger to share more of its sensitive internal communications by email by delivering confidence in message privacy, integrity and verification of users credentials.

Extending the Entrust PKI-based security solution, Schlumberger further integrated facilities-access technology on a single smart-card platform. As a result, the Schlumberger DeXa.Badge security solution provides both access security for buildings, offices and other physical assets, as well as the certificates required for secure network and desktop access.

The Value Proposition
Scalable and interoperable, Schlumberger has already deployed the Entrust Secure Messaging Solution to 25,000 global employees and plans to continue deploying the solution throughout the organization. Not only has Entrust's technology required little user training, it has also been easy to deploy as it only requires the installation of a single infrastructure. In fact, through an arrangement with its PC supplier, computer systems now received by Schlumberger arrive with the Entrust solution already installed.

Schlumberger continues to leverage the security management system to introduce new applications that helps in reducing their total cost of ownership. For example, Schlumberger used the Entrust Authority Security Toolkit for Visual Basic and Entrust Authority Security Toolkit for Java to help the company to rapidly and easily develop new applications for use within their integrated security infrastructure.

Entrust Secure Messaging Solution has also helped reduce the time and overhead costs involved in doing every day business. By using secure e-mail and digital signatures, Schlumberger can share sensitive information in a more convenient fashion compared to the more expensive and time intensive alternatives, such as courier, registered mail or fax.

The Future
The strength of the SchlumbergerSema smart card solution has made the company the world's leading supplier of smart card technology. The success of its integrated security project prompted the company to continue working with Entrust, taking Entrust's Enhanced Internet Security offering to Schlumberger customers around the globe as part of their DeXa.Badge and DeXa.Port integrated solutions.