Streamlining 2FA for Federal Reserve Bank, Chicago (FRB)

Streamlining 2FA for Federal Reserve Bank, Chicago (FRB)

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (Chicago Fed), one of the twelve regional Reserve Banks in the Federal Reserve System, serves USA’s Seventh Federal Reserve District. It plays a crucial role in monetary policy, financial services, and economic research.

Additionally, the Chicago Fed is responsible for supervising and regulating state-chartered banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System and serves as a resource for the public on economic issues.

The Requirements:

The FRB aimed to enhance its security measures by incorporating an additional layer of authentication for Atlassian products, specifically Jira and Bitbucket. A key challenge was to ensure robust identity verification for Bitbucket users executing GIT commands, such as push, pull, and clone, which are commonly used in software development processes.

Our Solution:

We proposed our innovative Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) add-on, which offers a wide range of authentication options along with an impressive array of robust security features.

The 2FA add-on was seamlessly integrated with their Jira environment. However, incorporating an additional layer of authentication, particularly for accessing Bitbucket using GIT commands like push, pull, and clone presented a real challenge.

End users can initiate GIT commands from numerous online GIT clients. As such, interrupting the GIT client’s flow for 2FA validation was challenging since they do not support custom popups. Consequently, users did not have a designated space to enter 2FA OTPs and complete the authentication process.

To overcome this challenge, we engineered a solution that enforces 2FA on GIT commands using Duo Push Notifications. Authenticating with just a tap in Push Notifications eliminates the hassle of OTPs and makes this solution compatible with all available GIT clients.

To reduce the dependency on an external application like DUO for Push Notifications, we also introduced an Out of Band Email authentication (Email link verification 2FA). This method sends a verification link to the user’s email whenever a GIT command is initiated, ensuring secure access to Bitbucket without impacting the user experience.

Benefits:

The implementation of miniOrange's MFA solutions provided the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago with several key benefits:

  • Enhanced Security: The additional layer of authentication significantly fortified the security of FRB Chicago's Atlassian suite, particularly for sensitive operations involving Bitbucket and GIT commands.
  • Seamless User Experience: By integrating non-intrusive authentication methods like Duo Push and Email Link verification, we ensured that the security enhancements did not disrupt the existing workflows or user experience.
  • Flexible Authentication Options: The versatility of our 2FA add-on allowed FRB Chicago to select from multiple authentication methods, tailoring the security needs to fit their specific operational requirements.

Conclusion:

By adopting miniOrange's advanced 2FA solutions, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago was able to strengthen cybersecurity measures across its Atlassian products. This strategic enhancement helped the bank secure sensitive financial data and supported its commitment to maintaining a high standard of regulatory compliance and operational security.

Your needs, Our solution:

Let's embark on a discovery call to explore how we can address your needs. Reach out to us at +1 978 658 9387 or email your inquiries to info@xecurify.com. We're eager to discuss how we can move forward together.