Why Financial Institutions In Scranton and Wilkes-Barre Need to Outsource Their IT Services
Cyberattacks are on the rise — and unfortunately, financial institutions often take the hardest hit. This is because institutions are profitable targets for hackers.
But financial institutions have a responsibility to safeguard sensitive data of consumers due to The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which means it’s integral that institutions have a plan in place that keeps company information secure. So what can institutions do to combat these attacks?
Financial institutions in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre can keep data secure with managed IT services. Today, we’re going to discuss common threats that financial institutions face and why companies need to outsource their IT services to tech42LLC.
Common Cyber Threats for Financial Institutions
Cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated, and financial institutions are often their primary targets. In fact, almost all financial institutions have experienced a cyberattack in some form. Unfortunately, this can lead to a host of long-term problems for companies. Here are 3 ways a cybercriminal might attack a financial institution.
Malware
This is software that is specifically designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to a computer system. Cybercriminals generally use malware when they want to extract data that they can leverage over their victims for financial gain. A cybercriminal will take all types of information. But they will most commonly extract information such as financial data, passwords, and even healthcare records.
Spoofing
This is the act of disguising a communication that comes from an unknown source and presenting it as a trusted source. Spoofing can occur with simple things such as emails, phone calls, and websites. However, it can become more complex with things like IP addresses and Domain Name Servers.
A cybercriminal will use spoofing if they want to gain access to their victims’ personal information, spread malware through malicious links, and bypass network access controls.
Data Manipulation
Another way cybercriminals attack their victims is through data manipulation. A cybercriminal doesn’t have to actually steal your company’s information. However, they can tweak your data to cause damage to your company and tarnish the brand or your institution.
Essentially, the attacker will alter critical data instead of stealing it right away. This discrete process can make it difficult to know that your data is vulnerable.
The Importance of Managed IT Services
These types of threats can lead to many problems for financial institutions in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. For starters, a data breach can significantly affect your business reputation. Customers will no longer want to do business as they will believe that your company isn’t secure enough to hold their personal information.
At the same time, a loss of customers will lead to a loss of revenue. If your customers no longer trust your institution, it can take a while to regain the trust of the public again, which means companies can really take a hit financially. These types of threats can also lead to a halt in business operations, which will also affect your institution’s revenue.
With that said, all financial institutions should have managed IT services in place. It’s the best way to stay compliant and ensure your company and customers’ information is secure.
Outsource Your IT Services to tech42LLC
We know how important is for lawyers and staff to be able to access client information. Most financial institutions rely on various applications and software to store and organize their clients’ personal data.
This is why strong security practices are essential. We strive to make operating business easier by helping companies efficiently secure their sensitive data. Here are 4 reasons why you should choose us for managed IT services.
Improve Level of Security
Improving security should be a top priority for financial institutions. With so much sensitive information stored in the database, institutions need to know that their security system is clawed-tight and free from vulnerabilities.
Even one weak point in your security system can lead to a hacker corrupting one or more of your devices or systems with malware and stealing information.
Institutions cannot afford such vulnerabilities. But many businesses also don’t have the time to monitor their security system as they should. This is why outsourcing IT services are important. We will provide peace of mind by improving your company’s level of security through methods such as disaster recovery and anti-malware protection
With disaster recovery, we can help you regain access to your data and improve the functionality of your company’s IT infrastructure in the event of an attack. Anti-malware protection is a software program designed to detect, prevent, and remove malicious software, which will improve your institution’s overall security.
VPN for Remote Access
Remote work is more prevalent now than ever before. But financial institutions need to be particularly careful about how their remote staff access information when they’re away.
VPN stands for a virtual private network, and it gives financial institutions the online privacy to create a private network from a public internet connection.
With that said, we can create a VPN for your institution to give your remote workers and lawyers secure access, which will enable them to view and share even the most critical information no matter where they are.
Cloud Backup
A cloud backup is a type of data backup that is used to send a physical copy, virtual file, or database to an off-site location to preserve the data in the event there is an equipment failure or other types of catastrophe. Essentially, a backup application will copy the data and store it in a different media or another storage system for easy access.
Cloud backups are critical for financial institutions as there are so many opportunities for data files to be compromised. Things like human error, equipment failures, and viral attacks are more common than you might think.
For this reason, businesses need to be diligent about having a recovery plan in place to recover important information. This is why we recommend outsourcing your IT services. We can perform regular backups to the cloud so that you don’t have to worry about data loss. At the same time, outsourcing allows you to focus on your clients and other operational needs.
Email Spam Filtering
Email is one of the easiest ways for hackers to put malware on a company’s device. All it takes is one click of a link and a hacker can do some serious damage. For this reason, financial institutions need a solid strategy to filter incoming emails and minimize the risk of clicking on an email with malicious content.
Email spam filtering detects unsolicited, virus-infected emails and stops them from showing up in your inbox. Ultimately, a spam filter will take emails through a process that examines the email content to determine the likelihood of it being spam. Any email that checks off as spam will be deleted, preventing your staff from accidentally clicking on a virus-infected email.
For financial institutions, it’s integral that you secure your data. Secured data helps companies minimize data breaches, prevent revenue loss, and ensures that your brand reputation remains intact. Here at tech42LLC, we are dedicated to providing managed IT services so that lawyers and staff can access client’s information in a secure cloud solution. If you’re interested in our managed IT services, contact us today to learn more.