Like most businesses, banks are facing a highly competitive future built on digital services. To succeed, they must modernize their IT infrastructure to deliver the experiences that customers now demand, without incurring the wrath of regulators. Yet the wealth of sensitive information managed by financial services firms ensures the sector remains a popular target for state-backed and criminally motivated threat actors.
This why comforte’s award-winning data-centric security approach is increasingly favored by global banks and payment providers.
The opportunities and risks of IT modernization
The banking industry is one of the few remaining sectors where legacy mainframe technology is still widespread. But financial institutions are working hard to address technical debt, improve operational efficiency and deliver the streamlined mobile and cloud-based services that customers expect. It’s why the digital transformation market for the vertical is expected to exceed $108bn in 2025.
Yet while these initiatives are essential to remain competitive, they also invite risk by expanding the cyber-attack surface. From cloud servers and web applications, to APIs and remote working endpoints, there are more pathways to reach critical assets and data than ever. And serious breaches can cost banks dear. The latest estimates put the average cost per incident at $6.1m, up 3% from 2023.
Why comforte?
As critical infrastructure providers, financial services firms are also highly regulated. They’re governed by numerous local laws, and industry standards like PCI DSS, as well as transnational regulations like GDPR, DORA and NIS 2 (in the EU). Hefty fines which can reach 4% of global annual turnover are more than enough to focus the minds of boardrooms everywhere. But understanding the risks involved is only the first step. Banks also need to have a strategy for mitigating serious cyber-related business risks and delivering a rock-solid platform for digital expansion.
This is complicated by the audacity, determination and innovation displayed by the cybercrime community. Ransomware and data extortion remain a top threat, but traditional perimeter defenses are no longer fit for purpose at a time when stolen or brute-forced credentials will let a threat actor masquerade as a legitimate employee. Compromised credentials featured in nearly a third (31%) of all breaches assessed by Verizon over the past decade.
This is where the comforte approach comes in. By focusing on protecting the data first, it ensures that even if bad actors can access banking information, they’re unable to do anything with it. Specifically, comforte’s Data Security Platform offers:
- Seamless, AI-powered discovery and classification of data, wherever it resides (including cloud and shadow data)
- Multiple data protection methods including format-preserving encryption (FPE) and tokenization, which ensure banks can continue to use protected data in digital initiatives like machine learning analytics
- Seamless integration with existing apps and data flows, to accelerate time to value
- Support for customized security policies, for maximum flexibility
- Granular access controls which further enhance security and support data sovereignty requirements
A winning approach
But don’t take our word for it. In 2024, comforte won Best Modern Banking Cybersecurity Solution at the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, following previous wins in 2020 and 2022—the latter resulting in recognition as Best Data Security Company, Best Data Security Platform, and Best Security Platform.
This highlights comforte’s growing expertise in the banking sector. Customers including VISA and Mastercard, many of the world's leading banks, and payment partner ACI Worldwide—which promotes us to its 8000+ customer base—are increasingly waking up to the benefits of data-centric security. Is it time for you to do the same?
