BSI Group Canada Inc., announced that Achievers, a leading provider of cloud-based employee software and services, is the first North American company to complete the certification process to Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) STAR Certification, a rigorous third party assessment of the security for a cloud service provider.
"The initiative and leadership that Achievers has demonstrated by being the first in North America to attain CSA STAR Certification, shows that they are not only committed to a high level of security for their customers, but to being industry leaders in secure service delivery," said Todd VanderVen, President, BSI Americas. "We strive to support and drive business excellence and Achievers is a fine demonstration of that principle."
CSA STAR Certification is the first comprehensive third party assessment for cloud service providers (CSPs) in the world. It builds on the ISO/IEC 27001 information security management system standard, which Achievers has also attained, by adding additional controls developed by the CSA known as the Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM). This program gives companies more visibility into the security of specific areas of their business and provides more transparency to cloud service buyers.
"We are committed to maintaining the highest levels of security and are investing the dollars required to protect our customers and their data. It provides our customers the peace of mind to have the highest trust in our software and services. It's critical to their business," said Patrick D. Quirk, CEO and President, Achievers Corp. Quirk continued on to say, "we achieved ISO 27001 certification and are the only cloud provider in our category to accomplish this. Now with STAR certification we have visibility into the security of every area of our business. These certifications are a game changer."
Vishal Sharma, Information Security Officer with Achievers was brought on in 2012 to spearhead the adoption of ISO 27001 and now CSA STAR Certification. Both have been done in partnership with BSI Canada.
"The security of a system is only as strong as its weakest link," said Sharma. "That is why a process like CSA STAR Certification is so critical to continually improving the quality of our software. We now have the visibility to assess risk in specific areas and on continuous basis, which allows us to prioritize where we need to invest when adapting to changing security needs. As the first company in North America to successfully complete such a detailed review of our security we can confidently say that we are truly superior to our competitors."
