Cassidian and Ilex, specialist for identity and access Management, have signed a cooperation agreement concerning management of identities and secure access to corporate information systems. This agreement means that Cassidian's customers will be offered an enhanced user lifecycle management solution for the company's information system. The aim is to answer the following questions: Who has access to what? Who gave access to whom? Who does what?

Identity and access management has become a key issue in corporate information systems security, particularly in a context in which companies have increasingly modular organisational needs, both functionally and geographically.

For Cassidian, a major player in the cyber-security field and well-known actor in Public Key Infrastructure, the complete and proven identity management and access control platform from Ilex, consisting of the Meibo and Sign&go products, represents an innovative technological building block that works in synergy with its own range.

"This cooperation agreement is first of all the result of the clear compatibility between our identity management range and the innovative technologies from Ilex. Ilex offers Cassidian its expertise of the complete identity management chain. Its solutions allow tracking of rights within the company and, at the same time, help deal with the extremely costly problem of identity theft." declares Denis Gardin, Head of the Cassidian Cyber Security Center.

For Laurent Gautier, President of Ilex, "This partnership with a major player in the cyber-security field enables Ilex to consolidate its strategic position in the international defence and security markets and is a clear indication of Cassidian's desire to meet the needs of its customers by proposing complete, operational and easily implemented solutions."

Faced with the growing demand for new products and solutions to counter cyber-threats, Cassidian and the EADS Innovation Works network of joint research centres pooled their resources within the Cyber Security Center. A base of experts is in place in the United Kingdom, France and Germany to meet the needs of sensitive IT infrastructure operators (governments, military organisations, multinationals, strategic infrastructure operators) and to provide a structure offering all the expertise and the solutions necessary for detecting and countering cyber-threats.