With Williams Racing, one of the oldest and most renowned F1 teams, facing an immense challenge in protecting its valuable intellectual property it turned to Keeper Security for a reliable and secure password management solution.
In the world of Formula 1, technology and data are essential for maintaining a competitive advantage. Williams Racing, one of the oldest and most renowned F1 teams, faces an immense challenge in protecting its valuable intellectual property.
With a globally distributed workforce utilising hundreds of devices during races around the globe, as well as sophisticated day-to-day operations, the team must ensure that its sensitive information remains secure from cyberthreats while maintaining seamless workflows.
Formula 1 cars are high-tech assets for the team, refined by constant engineering. Vehicle development is driven by data, and teams collect an increasingly large amount of new data with each race, including telemetry data and video footage.
Williams Racing gathers terabytes of data each race weekend, which is then transferred, stored and analysed by the team to be leveraged to refine strategies for upcoming races and the years to come. With the increased reliance on data, along with the sheer volume, storing and accessing it in a secure way is crucial to ensure all highly confidential intellectual property is protected.
Equally important is the security of financial and commercial data, including the allocation of cost-cap budgets, which are directly linked to performance. This sensitive information plays a critical role in maintaining a competitive edge, ensuring compliance with regulations and protecting strategic decisions.
The mobile nature of Formula 1, in which teams travel to 21 different countries over the 10-month season – some of which are prone to heightened cybersecurity threats – adds another layer of complexity. Securing a distributed workforce while ensuring uninterrupted access to essential data is a non-negotiable priority for Williams Racing.
James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams Racing, said: “Cybersecurity, your threats and how you protect yourself is of fundamental importance. And it’s not spoken about often enough at all.”
Without a robust password management solution in place, the team risked exposing its systems to data breaches, which could paralyse operations or see sensitive information fall into the wrong hands. The challenges with previous password management methods included:
Password management practices: With hundreds of team members accessing critical data on race strategies, car designs and performance metrics around the globe, this increased the risk of unauthorised access to sensitive information and led to limited visibility and access control.
Limited visibility and access control: The IT team struggled to maintain control over password access and usage, particularly when it came to managing access for a large number of remote workers. Decommissioning users and transferring credentials securely when team members left the organisation was especially difficult and time-consuming, resulting in gaps in security along with wasted resources.
Inconsistent security across devices: As the team travelled to races around the world, including high-risk cybersecurity regions, the lack of a unified password management solution created inconsistencies in how devices were protected. This exposed the team to potential breaches while operating from a variety of different countries.
Harry Wilson, Head of Information Security, Williams Racing, said: “We need an infrastructure that works across every location, whether it’s the UK or countries with elevated cybersecurity risks. Keeper allows us to confidently give the team access to critical systems, no matter where they are.”
The Keeper Solution
Williams Racing turned to Keeper Security for a reliable and secure password management solution. Keeper’s zero trust and zero-knowledge architecture ensured the highest level of security for the team’s data, allowing Williams to safeguard its sensitive records. The solution delivered key benefits in several areas, including:
Centralised password management: Keeper provided Williams Racing with a single, secure platform for storing and managing passwords. This eliminated the need for risky practices and ensured that all credentials were protected with Keeper’s zero-trust and zero-knowledge architecture.
Seamless integration with existing systems: Keeper integrated easily with Williams Racing’s existing Identity Provider (IdP), allowing for automated provisioning and deprovisioning of user accounts. This integration ensures that credentials are securely transferred when staff leave or join the team, reducing the burden on IT and eliminating potential security gaps.
Advanced security features: Keeper’s robust security measures, including Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and end-to-end encryption, ensure that sensitive internal communications and data are protected. The ability to securely and seamlessly share credentials among team members without exposing sensitive data adds an extra layer of protection.
User adoption and training: Keeper is recognised as the leading password manager for organisations of all sizes and is designed to be easy to use and quick to deploy. Keeper’s extensive documentation portal provided Williams Racing with detailed instructions and system best practices to help its administrators get the most out of the deployment. For end-users, detailed product guides and training videos drive high end-user adoption.
Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC): Keeper provides granular sharing enforcement for administrators to leverage Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC) to ensure security policies are adhered to and compliance is met across the entire Williams Racing organisation. Designating roles within the organisation streamlines provisioning for administrators and allows for specific rule sets to be leveraged to maintain least-privilege access and increase the team’s security posture.
Organisation impact
The deployment of Keeper had a transformative effect on Williams Racing, improving both security and efficiency across the organisation. The key impacts include:
Increased security and data protection: Keeper’s robust security architecture improved Williams Racing’s ability to safeguard its highly sensitive data. The IT team now has full visibility into password usage and password complexity and can monitor for any security threats, ensuring that all credentials are protected from unauthorised access.
Improved operational efficiency: By centralising password management and streamlining access controls, Williams Racing significantly reduced the time spent managing credentials. This allowed engineers, mechanics and other personnel to focus on their core tasks without delays caused by access issues – particularly during race weekends.
Reduced risk of cyberattacks: With strong password management practices and advanced security features in place, Williams Racing minimised the risk of a data breach or cyberattack. The seamless integration of Keeper’s solution across all devices, even in high-risk regions, provides the team with an additional layer of confidence as they travel globally.
Positive feedback and user adoption: Keeper’s ease of use and intuitive interface led to a high adoption rate among team members, including non-technical staff. As a result, the organisation saw a significant reduction in password-related help desk tickets and a more secure, organised approach to password management.
Enhanced usability for non-technical staff: Keeper’s user-friendly interface and browser extension simplified password management for non-technical teams like marketing, finance and logistics. This improved user adoption across departments and reduced friction during high-pressure race weekends, when every second counts.
Keeper Password Manager
Most businesses have limited visibility into the password practices of their employees, which greatly increases cyber-risk. Password hygiene cannot be improved without critical information regarding password usage and compliance. Keeper solves this by providing ultimate security, visibility and control.
Data is protected with Keeper’s zero-knowledge security architecture and world-class encryption. Zero-knowledge means that only the user has knowledge of and access to their master password and the encryption key used to encrypt and decrypt their information.
Keeper is intuitive and easy to deploy, regardless of the size of the business. Keeper integrates with Active Directory and LDAP servers, which streamlines provisioning and onboarding. Keeper SSO Connect integrates into existing SSO solutions and is FedRAMP and StateRAMP Authorised.
Keeper is designed to scale for organisations of any size. Features such as role-based permissions, team sharing, departmental auditing and delegated administration support organisations as they grow. Keeper Commander provides robust APIs to integrate into current and future systems.
Business Use Cases: Keeper Password Manager
• Prevent password-related data breaches and cyberattacks
• Support passkeys for effortless authentication
• Strengthen compliance
• Boost employee productivity
• Enforce password policies and procedures
• Reduce help desk costs
• Minimise training with fast time-to-security
• Improve employee security awareness and behaviour
