The financial services industry has been at the forefront of the digital transformation age for some time.
Keeping up with these requirements has caused financial organizations to rapidly overhaul their IT infrastructure, adopt multiple types of cloud technologies, and embrace a hybrid working environment for employees.
Because of this rapid digitalization, organizations are consuming many different security solutions creating a bespoke environment that inadvertently exposes them to cyber threats - and there are plenty of cyber thieves opportunistically waiting for their chance to attack.
The Growing Risk of IoT. In addition, many financial organizations have invested heavily in other new technologies such as IoT assets that have become commonplace in branch offices as banks seek to optimize their remaining locations.
These devices range from simple security cameras to items such as smart payment terminals and ATMs. However, IoT devices can also give cyber thieves a clear entry into the network.
The financial industry is known for taking advantage of the availability of 5G networks.
The technology promises speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G, allowing organizations to deploy even larger, more effective networks of IoT devices more easily.
The financial industry faces a difficult balancing act, with multiple conflicting priorities at the forefront.
Organizations must continually strengthen security around their evolving solutions to keep up in an increasingly competitive and fast-moving landscape.
While strong security is a requirement, it cannot impact usability for customers or employees in an industry where accessibility, agility, and the overall user experience are key differentiators.
This model integrates several different security features such as Secure Web Gateway, Zero Trust Network Access, Next Generation Firewall, Cloud Access Security Broker, Data Loss Prevention; and network management functions, such as SD-WAN, into a single offering delivered via the cloud.
Cloud-based delivery enables financial organizations to easily roll out SASE services and consistent policies to their entire network infrastructure, including thousands of remote workers scattered across various locations, or multiple branch offices to protect private data and users, as well as deployed IoT devices.
There are a variety of SASE approaches for financial organizations to consider.
Advanced unified SASE solutions provide the greatest benefits by natively embedding security into the global fabric of a software-defined network to optimize latency, scalability, and performance in ways only possible when everything is built-in from the beginning as a single service.
A well-architected unified SASE solution comes with a unified management plane encompassing all the security and networking functionalities listed above, including a single policy engine, one language to define or import apps and users, an API that exposes most capabilities, and a common data lake - all part of a single operating system.
Unified SASE delivers important benefits for financial organizations to optimize security and user performance, most notably around tightly integrated security and networking that can be centrally managed and monitored, reducing the risk of security gaps or misconfigurations across otherwise separate functions.
Enhancing network capabilities without compromising security.
As the financial industry continues its relentless pursuit of digitalization, SASE will play an important role in optimizing the customer experience while also securing that experience against mounting cyber threats.
SASE's convergence of security capabilities and network management gives organizations the ability to control critical activity such as access management, policy enforcement, and network segmentation, just to start.
Financial firms should explore how the vast array of SASE services can improve the services they offer while providing unparalleled security for the network, their customers, and private financial information.
This Cyber News was published on www.cybersecurity-insiders.com. Publication date: Sat, 29 Jun 2024 16:13:07 +0000