Helping Financial Institutions Capitalize on Their IT Assets
With all of the media hype lately, another data breach is the last thing any financial institution needs. Most financial organizations have highly developed IT professionals running their data infrastructures, but upgrades and disposal can become overwhelming. Whether using magnetic data tapes or not, industry best practices state that companies need to keep their data for several decades and should migrate the data to the latest software version of their backup solution. That’s where we come into play. Since 1965, we have been helping businesses, both large and small, keep their data secure while increasing ROI on used IT equipment.
Securing Financial Data
With over 50 years’ experience in data security, we can help you liquidate computer and IT equipment without any concern for data leaks. From personal laptops and desktops containing account information to servers and hard drives with financial records; we keep everything confidential and secure. We meet or exceed all industry-specific regulations including FACTA and Gramm-Leach Bliley.
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A plan for guarding against ransomware in the finance industry.
So what can IT departments for financial institutions do to guard against the threat of cyber attack? Here is a simple five-point plan that will go a long way to helping IT professionals in the finance industry secure their defenses.
Stay up to date
Make sure that servers and PCs are up to date with the latest operating systems and antivirus solutions.
Retire unused IT assets
Consider if older machines, which are beyond updates or support, could be replaced or retired. The cost of doing so, and inconvenience of replacing older equipment will probably be less than the impact of a data breach.
Make sure everyone in the organization is familiar with ransomware methods and can recognize attempts to gain password credentials or circulate harmful links and attachments. Financial institutes employ so many different and diverse professionals, covering a multitude of functions, that there needs to be a culture of vigilance across the entire organization.
Use different credentials for accessing backup storage and maybe even a mixture of file systems to isolate different parts of your infrastructure to slow the spread of ransomware. Financial organizations that follow the “1-10-60” rule of cybersecurity will be better placed to neutralize the threat of a hostile adversary before it can leave its initial entry point. The most cyber-prepared healthcare agencies should aim to detect an intrusion in under a minute, perform a full investigation in under 10 minutes, and eradicate the adversary from the environment in under an hour.
Three copies of your data, on at least two different media, with one stored offsite (e.g. cloud or tape) and one stored offline (e.g. tape). Having your data behind a physical air gap creates perhaps the most formidable barrier against ransomware. Tape can greatly speed up your recovery in the hours and days that follow an attack, especially if your primary backups have been disrupted. Tape is also supremely efficient for storing huge amounts of infrequently accessed medical records for a very long time. Tapes can also be encrypted so that even if they did fall into the wrong hands, it would be impossible for thieves to access or use the data.