As a financial services professional, you’re no stranger to compliance. You know that when you’re dealing with people’s finances, there’s no room for error. And that’s something to be proud of.
Internally, being compliant means having real-time data to have accurate “here and now” conversations. Knowing and proving the health and status of all work devices.
The most prepared teams are using endpoint management and security to meet the rising number of patches, misconfigurations, and audits. They have easy-to-use dashboards that allow them to see what’s going on with their devices at all times.
But how do they achieve 100% visibility when their IT environment is becoming more complex by the day?
Can their dashboards see cell phones being used for work, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and the plethora of third-party applications?
Compliance can be easy. Here’s how some financial organizations are keeping up with changing regulations using unified security and endpoint management.
More Devices Don’t Have to Equal More Problems
Scalability wanted: Organizations need to keep up with a fluctuating, growing inventory of laptops, mobile phones, desktop computers, tablets, servers – and guarantee they’re all following the security policies set in place.
Endpoint management empowers organizations to easily manage, deploy, and configure, all devices, usually with a single platform used to centralize them all.
It doesn’t matter if you have 1,000, 10,000, or 100,000 endpoints. Security and compliance teams are using fewer tools to get accurate, real-time visibility of all devices on their network. What you’ve patched and remediated becomes proof – tracked and true.
Automation is Your Best Friend
Endpoints are usually the first line of entry and thus, defense against cyber threats that can disrupt financial services, compromise data, and damage reputation.
Well-protected financial organizations can see if endpoints have disabled firewalls, unnecessary software, or known vulnerabilities, and they can ensure that weak passwords are flagged or limit access if authorization measures are not being met. Devices that are in bad health can be quarantined and remediated. This kind of automation and orchestration is critical for meeting compliance and regulatory requirements.
It’s time to move beyond thinking of endpoint management and security as just IT protection for business. It’s security for financial health, organizational reputation, customer trust, and even digital service continuity.
5 Tips for Financial IT and Compliance Teams Preparing for Audits
Audits happen. It’s a fact of life. Don’t fear the oncoming audit. Take these tips from financial pros and stay on top of compliance and audit requirements.
- Consolidate your tools into one centralized endpoint management system. This lets you put all the other tools (that may not play nice) away. Simple, effective device monitoring and control enforces your security policies and ensures timely patch updates.
- Be ready to provide proof that vulnerabilities and patches have been applied across all your endpoints. This proof can also help answer what things used to look like and why they’re more secure now. Innovative unified security and endpoint management platforms will offer real-time reporting just for this.
- Don’t be afraid to leverage automation. Teams looking to save time, reduce stress, and get through the to-do list without hiring a dozen more people have started using solutions that offer easy-to-use automation to identify, respond, and heal devices automatically. We’re not talking about programs that will take over your job. But we are talking about automating the tasks that currently bog you down, so you can focus on what’s important.
- Train employees on their role in endpoint management and security. Cover the latest threats, phishing techniques, how to identify suspicious links, and other exposures, like using unsecured public wi-fi. As much as IT and security teams do to protect the enterprise, employees are an attack vector. They need basic skills to protect themselves and the company from malicious hackers.
- Lastly, stay current on endpoint management and security innovations, especially those that target evolving threats and enable you to do more with less (like automation). Conduct periodic audits to maintain protocol compliance and adjust as needed.
IT and security leaders know that managing and protecting an enterprise is an ever-evolving process. The world is always changing and dynamic. A big part of keeping things secure and ensuring compliance is accurately finding and fixing misconfigurations or human errors before they can be exploited. For those in financial services, technological innovations can help. Don’t be afraid to see what’s out there. Why not schedule a demo with Syxsense today to learn more about our automated endpoint management, security, and compliance capabilities?
