Storing Sensitive Data in SaaS Platforms

Financial firms large and small are finding themselves with one common hurdle, the push for a secure digital transformation to offer their clients what they are asking for, digital access to their financial data. There are countless Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions available to financial firms, all offering what seems to be the same features, products, and promising the same thing – client access to data but do they also promise to secure your firms data? Historically, financial firms have spent about 10% of their IT budget on cybersecurity. Yet, between February and April of 2020, there was a 238% increase in cyber-attacks against the financial sector. Something isn’t working. Your business will always be subject to risk as you are providing a service focused on money. Unfortunately, criminals will do anything they can to get it, but the reality is that your success will always be threatened by people not willing to do the work themselves.

The impact that information security has on a financial firm is enormous and traditionally, so was the cost. To reduce those internal costs, outsourcing certain aspects of your IT and cybersecurity will dramatically reduce your exposure to IT mistakes and information security attacks. This results in meeting compliance and client demands as well as overall protection your client’s sensitive information. Operating in a digitally secure environment ensures the integrity of client data and your intellectual property, which can save the many years of time you have spent building a successful firm. How many financial firms are proactively mitigating potential vulnerabilities and ensuring quality data privacy and security? According to T3 Founder Joel Bruckenstein, we feel it is a major disappointment that from the 2020 T3 Conference, more than 93% of advisory firms had not engaged with an information security provider to protect their sensitive data. Every business has an “IT guy,” but there is a delineation between just doing the minimum and being proactive with the core of your business.

During an ordinary day, how much vital client information do you store outside of your custodial platform? Perhaps in OneDrive, your phone, email, or perhaps on an external hard drive sitting on your desk? That data is NOT protected by your custodial platform and if audited, will be found as a finding. Are you worried about how that data would be used if it was exposed? Outsourcing this responsibility to a Managed Service Provider (MSP) that focuses on information security will remove this risk from your business and allow you to sleep better at night. We knew that when we started our business, our services needed to encompass everything a business owner, compliance officer, or network manager needs in order to manage and secure all their IT devices and sensitive information to remove these threats.

Any of these pain points hit close to home? We find that when companies keep client data secure and safe by outsourcing managing IT devices and information security, they grow 25% simply because their focus can go back to building their business. This growth more than pays the outsourcing monthly fees and as an added bonus, removes audit risks. One of our customers made a short video talking about how we helped him through these very issues. If you would like to find out how you can grow and remove risk, reach out to us at 855-578-7272 or by email, [email protected]. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.