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SECURITY

GivingForce understands that the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our customers’ information are vital to their business and our own success. GivingForce use a multi-layered approach to protect that key information, constantly monitoring and improving our application, systems, and processes to meet the growing demands and challenges of security

GivingForce uses some of the most advanced technology for Internet security available today. When you access your GivingForce site using industry standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, your information is protected using both server authentication and data encryption, ensuring that your data is safe, secure, and available only to registered employees in your organisation.

Each customer’s information is stored in a separate database. All databases are secured using strong encryption algorithms and strict database access rules. Your data will be completely inaccessible to anyone else.

GivingForce provides each employee in your organisation with a unique user name and password that must be entered each time a employee logs on. GivingForce issues a session "cookie" only to record encrypted authentication information for the duration of a specific session. GivingForce does not use "cookies" to store other confidential user and session information, but instead implements more advanced security methods based on dynamic data and encoded session IDs.

In addition, GivingForce is hosted in a secure server environment that uses a firewall and other advanced technology to prevent interference or access from outside intruders.
 

Secure data centers

Our service is collocated in dedicated spaces at top-tier data centers. These facilities provide carrier-level support, including:

Access control and physical security

  • Independent card identification access system
  • Secure & monitored single-person point of entry, physically guarded
  • 24/7 and integrated digital video camera surveillance
  • Limited proximity card access
  • Strict security processes are in place to ensure delivery and loading of goods are secure
  • CCTV coverage for the perimeter, common areas and facilities

Air conditioning and cooling

  • 6 x 2.7MW chillers N+2 configuration
  • Room Air Conditioning Units (RACUs) to provide down-flow chilled water system at N+25%
  • RACU with bunded floor area and water leakage detection and monitoring
  • Hot aisle/cold aisle zone design
  • 900mm raised floor design with airflow space to provide the most efficient cooling
  • Maximum external ambient temperature of 35 degrees Celsius dry bulb

Power

  • Four redundant HV power systems, from separate grids
  • N+1 redundant standby generators with a minimum of 24 hours autonomy at full capacity
  • Standard generators with a minimum of 24 hours autonomy at full capacity
  • 8 x 2.5MVA 11kV Generators
  • 2 (N+1) redundant UPS
  • Redundant A & B power feeds

Network

  • Concrete vaults for fiber entry
  • Redundant internal networks
  • Network neutral; connects to all major carriers and located near major Internet hubs
  • High bandwidth capacity

Fire detection and suppression

  • Fully addressable two stage fire detection system that monitors both under-floor and the room itself
  • Detectors with 50% mix of optical and ionisation are split across 2 separate zonal-loops, to meet BS 5839, 6266, 5445 and 5588
  • Very early smoke detection alarms (VESDA) installed throughout the facility
  • Dry sprinkler fire detection system to meet BS 5306, 3115 and with LFEPA approval. Dry sprinkler is the main fire suppression method employed

Secure transmission and sessions

  • Connection to the GivingForce environment is via SSL 3.0/TLS 1.0, using global step-up certificates from Trustwave, ensuring that our users have a secure connection from their browsers to our service
  • Individual user sessions are identified and re-verified with each transaction, using a unique token created at login

Network protection

  • Perimeter firewalls and edge routers block unused protocols
  • Internal firewalls segregate traffic between the application and database tiers
  • Intrusion detection sensors throughout the internal network report events to a security event management system for logging, alerts, and reports
  • A third-party service provider regularly scans the network externally

Disaster Recovery

  • The GivingForce service performs real-time replication to disk at each data center, and near real-time data replication between the production data center and the disaster recovery center
  • Data is transmitted across encrypted links.
  • Disaster recovery tests verify the integrity of the customer data

Backups

  • All data are backed up at each data center, on a rotating schedule of incremental and full backups
  • The backups are cloned over secure links
  • Backup media are not transported offsite and are securely destroyed when retired

Internal and Third-party testing and assessments

GivingForce tests all code for security vulnerabilities before release, and regularly scans our network and systems for vulnerabilities. Third-party assessments are also conducted regularly.

  • Application vulnerability threat assessments
  • Network vulnerability threat assessments
  • Selected penetration testing and code review

Security Monitoring

Our Information Security department monitors notification from various sources and alerts from internal systems to identify and manage threats.