Pandemic Driven IT Security for Financial Institutions

Mask mandates may be dwindling, but the aftereffects of the pandemic are real. Companies have focused on the health of their employees and are just now revisiting the health of their business models. The last two years we’ve bore witness to the shift in how we operate as a society, and this has translated to the workplace as well. Remote and hybrid workforces have emerged as a dominant population in industry causing an uprising in IT security flaws.

No one business is immune, however financial companies bare the brunt more than most.

A pandemic-driven new normal in the workplace is centered around connectivity and accessibility. Though this type of convenience isn’t without inconvenience for IT, infrastructure and security professionals. For financial institutions, the flexibility enjoyed by remote, hybrid, and dispersed employees on-the-go is not something that should be taken away, but it is a liability that needs to be addressed before catastrophe strikes.

For example, an employee uses their own device to connect to your company’s network while enjoying a chai latte and inputting notes on a recent prospect meeting in a comfortable chair at Starbucks. Sure, the work is getting done and the fringe benefit of a mid-day coffee stop adds to employee satisfaction and productivity that is vital to talent retention. However, that unprotected device over an unsecured public network puts your entire operation at risk. Not only are your corporate assets potentially discoverable by whomever would like to hack in while having a cappuccino, but your clients’ data and information are vulnerable as well.

Short of requiring all employees to use mandated hardware with antivirus protection and spyware up the wazoo, financial institutions should be looking at the bigger picture. Today it’s a cup of coffee from a hybrid employee, but tomorrow it could easily be a mid-level manager on a business trip using a hotel’s hospitality data center to send confidential information to a network printer for last minute client meeting prep. With business travel beginning to pick up again, the use of a public network such as this may be of the utmost importance. Without tiered administrative rights, this salesman’s login provides complete access to company assets and your full infrastructure. You’ve inadvertently put your business, and your client’s business at an increased compliance and security risk.

The bottom line is the potential for critical data exposure is everywhere. As financial companies adapt to a new workforce of mobile employees, and clients for that matter, security expectations and deliverables must be reassessed. Your infrastructure must do more than just combat cyberthreats. Rather, the best solutions for financial institutions are those that have IT security models in place that mitigate risk altogether. Machine learning and AI, high performance analysis, and virtual desktops should be part of your cybersecurity protocols. Security operations in the cloud, on premise, or a combination of both should be evaluated to determine the right infrastructure for your financial business.

Your employees need the right access, and your clients and corporate assets need the right protection.

Neovera is a leading and trusted provider of professional and comprehensive managed technology services. For over twenty years, our team has integral in providing financial companies with consulting, multiple Cloud platforms (IaaS, DaaS, PaaS, etc.) and cybersecurity solutions, including monitoring, managed services, CaaS, and Identity and Access Management.