The People’s Bank of China (PBC) is the central bank of China and performs various major functions: formulating and implementing monetary policy; regulating financial markets; managing the State treasury; managing credit operations; and participating in international financial activities. As the highest administrative organization in China’s banking sector, PBC deals with a large amount of information each day, and must promptly process marketing and financial information, make decisions, and formulate policies. 

 

As the head department of the central bank, the HQ of PBC needs to summarize and manage the data from branches in various provinces and cities, and also support and assist other state-owned banks with business and policies. As the HQ improves its information infrastructure, the PBC as a whole has already constructed a data network platform for data integration and sharing, and information transmission of all e-mail systems and business systems, greatly enhancing data integration speed and operational efficiency. 

 

Problems of Remote Mobile Officing 

The PBC has an increasing demand in mobile officing for a number of reasons: The central bank must supervise and manage all state-owned banks and financial organs in various provinces and cities; PBC leaders and business personnel must frequently go on business trips; PBC staff have to access network resources such as the OA, e-mail system and the business system in branch LANs, and quickly and safely access office systems in the HQ LAN when on business trips. 

 

IT managers at the central bank thought of using VPN access to enable staff to securely access and operate the current internal e-mail system (which means network access and e-mail receiving are highly safe and reliable); improve the security of data, channels, and access during data transmission; and raise work efficiency.

 

SANGFOR SSL VPN Solution 

SANGFOR, the nationally leading VPN provider, analyzed PBC’s requirements and offered the solution. SANGFOR deployed a SSL VPN device in the network of the central bank to conduct a performance test, which convinced PBC leader due to its secure identity authentication, quick data transmission, and easy-to-access operations. The central bank deployed two Gigabit SANGFOR SSL VPN devices in its network to build a safe and efficient platform for remote access. Considering line and device stability, the central bank established system connection through hot-standby in bypass mode to ensure that remote mobile officing access is available if one line fails. The central bank adopted the unique SANGFOR diversified identity authentication modes and established a hybrid system that combines static and dynamic identity authentication to ensure identity authentication is perfectly secure when leaders or employees access the HQ intranet. 

 

 

Benefit of SANGFOR SSL VPN solution 

1. SANGFOR SSL VPN ensures that the remote officing and mobile users can conveniently access the internal office platform to obtain and submit information at any time. 

2. SANGFOR SSL VPN ensures that users are authorized to access the network through diversified authentication methods including USB Key, short messages, soft keyboard, dynamic token, CA and hardware fingerprints.

3. SANGFOR VPN ensures that the intranet has no safety loopholes by setting detailed access permissions and assigning different permissions to different users.

4. SANGFOR SSL VPN ensures that the current network is not affected that all services and applications can be used normally, and that the new network closely fits each IT office system of the PBC through simple operations and multiple deployment modes. 

 

Currently, the applications of all PBC departments, such as mail and OA systems, are deployed in this network. All mobile officing staff can access the HQ IDC for information interaction through the SSL VPN at any place, including hotels, houses, and airport lounges. The new network greatly guarantees and supports the daily business tasks of PBC.