SECURE BY DESIGN

Cezanne HR is designed around a multi-tiered architecture that is recommended for web-based applications. The architecture partitions application functionality into independent layers: the presentation layer (or browser client), the business logic (application server) and the data layer (database).

The presentation layer never communicates directly with the database layer. All communication is performed via the business logic, which provides its own security checks before permitting access to the data. This prevents requests from a web browser from going directly to the database. The application also verifies the user role at every request.

The system encrypts customer data both at rest and in transmission using Transport Layer Security (TLS), which provides end-to-end security for communication between layers and across the internet and AES 256 for data encryption at rest.

Secure mechanisms are used to verify the identity of users attempting to access the system. In order to access the system, the user must either enter a username (e-mail address) and password or authenticate through an approved Single Sign-On (SSO) provider. For additional security, customers can also opt to use dual authentication, also known as multi-factor authentication or 2FA.

Passwords are protected using sophisticated hashing and salting techniques; Cezanne HR only ever stores hashes of password, never the passwords themselves.

You can set rules in the system to enforce a strong password policy, including:
- Mandatory inclusion of at least one upper and lowercase letter, one number and one symbol.
- Minimum and maximum password length.
- Expiry dates with reminders.
- Password history to prevent users from re-using their passwords within a customer-defined period.
- Maximum number of failed login attempts before the account is temporarily locked.
- You can also choose which, if any, of the Single Sign-On options – e.g. Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook and OpenID – are available to your users. Only identifiers that are secured with SSL can be used when the OpenID SSO option is enabled.

User authorisation is controlled through dynamic role-based security. Employees are allocated to roles, such as HR administrator, restricted HR administrator, line manager or self-service employee. The system then dynamically allocates permissions to individual users to view, change or delete information, or access different areas of functionality, based on their responsibilities in the company. For example, line managers can see more information about the employees that report to them than those employees who do not.

Importantly, Cezanne HR has been developed with embedded business intelligence functionality. This means that access to dashboards, queries and data exports are controlled by the same rules as those that govern access to features or information in the database.

Cezanne HR's Information Security Management System (ISMS) for the development, operation and delivery of the Cezanne HR service is ISO 27001 certified by BSI under certificate number IS 696606.

Cezanne HR is also Cyber Essentials Certified. Cyber Essentials is a UK government information assurance scheme operated by the National Cyber Security Centre that encourages organisations to adopt good practice in information security.

Inside the AWS environment, the systems are further safeguarded by firewalls between layers, IP and port restrictions, private subnets and network routing restrictions.

Operating system instances are hardened by disabling or removing any non-essential tools, utilities and other system administration options that might provide potential backdoor entry to the system, and by disabling or removing any unnecessary users, protocols, and processes. Our installation and configuration procedures are based on industry-recognised standards and tools.

Cezanne HR does not have physical access to the data centre or physical machines as this is prohibited by Amazon. Cezanne HR can access the virtual machine instances for the purpose of maintenance, applying security updates, monitoring and ensuring backups are running successfully. This is limited to Cezanne HR’s Managed Services team.

When purchasing a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, it is critical that the service is resilient and reliable. To ensure high availability the Cezanne HR software service includes:
- Installation in multiple EU data centres - your Cezanne HR software will continue to operate if a machine or data centre fails.
- 24-hour monitoring – the availability of the system is monitored continuously and an alert sent to the support team if a problem occurs.
- External monitoring from locations around the globe to alert Cezanne HR to unexpected latency or DNS problems.
- Monitoring of resources including CPU, disk and memory usage so we can scale as and when required.