PGP Corporation (PGP) was a privately held US venture capital backed business that provides market leading encryption technology. Their customers include 95% of Fortune 100 companies and over 50% of UK FTSE 100 companies. With effect from June 2010 PGP was purchased for around $300m by Symantec, the US listed business that operates brands such as Norton internet security products.
PGP had a presence within the UK for a number of years and had been working with Fluency (and its sister entity BRAL) since January 2004. During this time their operation in the UK grew significantly and Fluency was able to grow with it. As at the date of the sale Fluency also assisted PGP with its operations in France and Australia.
One of the reasons PGP chose Fluency as a provider was the level of security systems that Fluency has in place. The online systems give secure remote access to accounting records. This web environment allows current and historic management reports to be downloaded and live interrogation of the accounting software package for the purpose of ledger searches. The package is read only, ensuring that staff cannot make changes and has hierarchical security settings so that different individuals can have access to different information.
The system also allows nominated individuals to approve scanned copies of invoices in accordance with an approval matrix defined by the company. This allows secure multistage approval of transactions to take place quickly across international borders and time zones.
Given the nature of the services that PGP provide, security of their information is of paramount importance. From the US parent entity, PGP said "the technology is very reassuring and this, combined with the personal level of service they provide, gives us the comfort that our confidential information is not going to end up in the wrong hands".
In supporting PGP's requirements from both an information and data security perspective, Fluency has utilised a number of leading IT systems, including:
- Aventail SSL VPN
- Secure Computing token authentication system, which provides dual authentication to the network
- PGP email encryption software
- Secure Computing Sidewinder firewall system, a US military grade firewall
The sale to Symantec meant further reporting was required by PGP along with one off technical advice such as the calculation of the tax effects of options becoming vested. Fluency, with the assistance of the Chartered Accountancy firms with which it is associated worldwide, was able to provide this advice as a "one stop shop".