Data protection and the secure authentication of customers is of enormous importance in many sectors. But in banking, especially, the customers‘ trust and thus the protection of data is particularly important and significant. This requirement is of concern both to the major banks and special financial service providers which focus their core business on niches in the market. Today, numerous financial service providers, both domestic and international, place their trust in the USP Secure Entry Server® from United Security Providers to meet compli-ance requirements and to ensure efficient and secure access to confidential data and the pro-tection of web applications.
Challenges in banking
Banks are always on the radar of users, media or even potential cyber attackers with regard to data security, user management and access rights and in handling the data entrusted to them. They are thus obliged to take these topics very seriously. Nowadays bank customers expect services to be available anywhere, any time – and they don’t want to have to worry about how security policies are implemented in the background. Thus, banks need to offer their web applications and online services quickly, simply and in compliance with regulatory condi-tions. A balancing act, if ease-of-use by the customers is to be placed at the forefront.
Customer expectations on specialist banks
A customer from the international specialist banking sector, a specialist bank in services, wealth and investment and asset manage-ment, turned to United Security Providers with precisely this challenge. Web Access Management will become a central tool in the implementation of their digitization strategy, thus ensuring that the bank’s processes and ser-vices are „extended“ to customers and partners and can be offered as digital services.
The challenge faced by the bank was to manage the harmonization of its customers‘ expectations of confidential handling of their sensitive data with the bank’s compliance requirements and the regulatory conditions.
United Security Providers as a digitization partner
The bank uses the BaNCS system from Tata Consulting Service as its core banking application and the ePortfolio module which customers can access securely from anywhere in the world, at any time of day, with its wide variety of services. Customers log into their personal ePortfolio through the bank’s core banking application. For the end customer logging in it is technically irrelevant how he accesses his bank accounts – his expectation is, however, that the login authenticates him securely and adequately on the bank’s side, using the certificates stored there. Data protection is guaranteed by the bank.
The integration partner, Swisscom, was able to port the existing configuration of the specialist bank’s IT infrastructure to the Swisscom computing centre in Switzerland without interruptions – United Security Providers was tasked with securing the bank’s login model and protecting the core banking application with the USP Secure Entry Server®.
The USP Secure Entry Server® offers an integrated authentication service in addition to the web application firewall; this protects the application environment and detects anomalies: the two-factor authentication (2FA) used allows the bank’s customers to access their personal ePortfolio securely. United Security Providers has created the technical prerequisites for the bank to be able to decide who can access what data. In this way, the specialist bank’s web applications and web services are protect-ed, and secure access is guaranteed.
United Security Providers has thus guaranteed that the security of sensitive data is ensured for the bank, while simultaneously respecting regulatory provisions. The ePortfolio module, which is used by a number of banks, can be integrated into the USP Secure Entry Server® without great effort.
Summary
Collaboration with a cyber security service offers an enormous benefit for banks. For businesses of this size and with this high-risk level it is imperative that they can count on an infrastructure that is constantly available. Specialists operate and monitor the security infrastructure around the clock. Our Managed Security Services guarantee availability at all times, and so the bank can concentrate on its core business.