4 Key Benefits of Managed IT Security Services for Financial Firms

From June 2014 to May 2017—a period of just three years—almost 250 million financial records were breached, including JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Experian, and Equifax. Although sophisticated hackers were involved, each breach actually was initiated by known security vulnerabilities in computer programs or networking hardware that could have been overcome with strong internal controls and routine security reviews.

Given their access to personally identifiable information, credit card data, account information, user credentials, and even fraudulent transactions, financial institutions are clearly appetizing targets for hackers. So what are financial institutions up against, and how can they respond in a cost-effective way?

Knowing the Security Risks

As customers expect more of their financial services to be available on the move and more data moves online, the number of potential vulnerabilities financial institutions face will quickly rise. Therefore, cybersecurity needs to be integrated into every facet of an organization’s operations.

In addition to maintaining compliance with industry regulations, financial institutions need to understand how their data is stored, transferred, and encrypted. Third-party services and applications needs to be evaluated and continually monitored for security vulnerabilities and patched appropriately. Additionally, local area and wide area networks, cloud services, and endpoints from ATMs to computers need to be evaluated for risks and secured with the latest in industry tools and best practices.

At the end of the day, providing comprehensive cybersecurity to financial institutions can be a complex and costly endeavor.

Benefits of Managed IT Security Services

In the face of an ever-changing security landscape, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and nervous that your organization could be next in the crosshairs. However, a solution that many financial institutions are turning toward is partnering with a managed IT security service provider to provide a full suite of people, processes, and tools to enhance the security of their critical data and assets.

So just what could a managed IT security services (MSSP) offer your business?

Protection

Just as with other managed services, a key benefit of working with an MSSP is their ability to deliver a suite of advanced security tools to your environment and the man power to support it.. These tools include,  endpoint protection, penetration testing, firewall management, incident detection and prevention system, and security operations center support, all of which are tested, cutting-edge applications and practices to your support business.

Time and Cost Savings

Installing and maintaining security tools can be a costly endeavor for any organization, especially when you include the indirect costs of staff time and training on new equipment. MSSPs are able to help streamline your human resources and financial costs by distributing the cost of their services, tools, and capabilities across a broad base of clients, offering a shared service that can scale up or down as your operations demand. Add in the cost of hiring, retaining, and backfilling hard-to-fill IT security positions, and the ROI for working with an MSSP quickly accelerates.

Expertise

It can be difficult to always have the right blend of industry, regulation, and tool experience in-house to keep your organization safe, but this is where an MSSP can really shine. Because of their size and scope, MSSPs are able to tap into a deep bench of resources across a range of industries, tools, regulatory requirements, and situations, enhancing your organization’s ability to implement security best practices. Additionally, MSSPs have experience handling different types of risks, threats, and challenges, speeding up the time to recovery in the event of a security incident.

Advanced Technology

Not only will MSSPs have experience with most security tools, but many also have formal vendor partnerships to demonstrate their ability to deploy and manage advanced security tools. This experience translates to an ability to tailor the security tools and controls to the particular needs of your organization while also providing additional layers of defense in an integrated model, where tools communicate to one another. Finally, MSSPs are able to apply analytical support to monitor logs and alerts to make sure they stay ahead of any potential cyberthreat.

Taking the Next Step

Able to provide industry-leading protection through advanced tools, a deep bench of cybersecurity experts, and cost and resource savings, an MSSP can be a real differentiator for financial institutions looking to keep their data safe and secure. Learn more about how an MSSP can empower and enhance your organization’s cybersecurity posture by reaching out to the experienced team at FNTS here.