Continentale: Protected and Cost-Effective One-Time Passwords for Independent Insurance Brokers

€4bn

annual premium revenues generated by Continentaleon

1,500

independent brokers using KOBIL hardware to log-in to Continentale accounts through the VDG portal

number of digits in each OTP provided by SecOVID devices

Introducing Continentale

Continentale is one of Germany’s largest insurers, with premium revenues approaching €4 billion per year. It is a network of companies headed by Continentale Krankenversicherung aG, offering health insurance, life insurance, property insurance and a range of tailored insurances for private clients and mid-sized businesses.

Each year, Continentale’s 7,500 employees process approximately €2.7 billion in insurance benefit pay-outs. Its gross profit totals more than €560 million.

Challenges

To strengthen its reach across the German market, Continentale connected to the VDG portal, where 10,000 independent intermediaries and brokers interact with the country’s leading insurance providers. But with 1,500 agents using VDG to log in to Continentale accounts, a secure and cost-efficient authentication system was needed. Installing and maintaining a complete authentication system would have been too expensive.

Solution

Continentale provided 1,500 registered independent brokers with SecOVID devices from KOBIL. This ensured all data was protected by a strong and cost-efficient two-factor authentication process.

Any brokers logging in had to combine their user ID and static PIN (knowledge factor) with an eight-digit, one-time password provided by a single push of a button on the SecOVID (ownership factor).

Each SecOVID one-time password is calculated using a secret Triple DES key, ensuring complete security and 100% data protection.

And with SecOVID software having been installed on the VDG portal since early 2003, the process of it instantly checking the validity of the password is long-proven.

“By using KOBIL’s SecOVID, we get an inexpensive solution that ultimately means that we can safely replace existing paper procedures. Token authentication is simple and self-explanatory for the intermediary. For Continentale, it is an advantage that we can use the technical platform of the internet without having to provide any hardware.”

Martin Passgang Head of Sales Controlling / Sales Technology, Continentale

Results

Continentale has successfully protected its data with secure and compliant two-factor authentication. It has instilled confidence among the independent brokers who access Continentale accounts through the VDG portal and Continentale’s success with SecOVID has even led to other providers joining the portal.