“Safety first.”
It’s a pretty easy idea to agree on. We all think safety is important.
So what do we do when customers say we aren’t being safe enough?
2017 saw the largest consumer data breach in world history. Equifax made international headlines for a breach that exposed the personal information of as many as 143 million people.
As Equifax knows well, financial and credit-related information is extremely valuable to cyber criminals. Hacks of this kind need to be protected against.
Consumer Safety
After many years of unsafe automobiles, consumers were tired of dangerous cars. They demanded that the industry clean up its act to make vehicles safer. With a little help from activists, car makers complied.
With government regulations in place, riding in a car has changed. Now all cars are made with seatbelts and few people get into a car without buckling up.
The auto industry’s move towards standard safety precautions can teach finance folks a lesson about how to face consumer demand for safety.
Cyber Seatbelt
Safety precautions for automotive vehicles began with the simple safety belt.
The seatbelt of the mortgage industry is MFA security, which keeps data safe.
The safest “seatbelt” on the market, it’s time to implement multi factor authentication when your company migrates into the cloud.
For your staff, a cloud-based workspace makes work convenient and accessible. For cyber criminals, migration to the cloud means they have a doorway to try and break in.
Also known as MFA, multi factor authentication is a nearly fool-proof way to prevent the wrong people from accessing your company’s data.
MFA requires that employees accessing the cloud have to enter at least 2 forms of digital identification. MFA validates that the person logging into the system is who they say they are. Whether by a text message to their company phone or another form of ID, staffers are let in and hackers are kept out.
MFA is so secure, it has become the modern standard for financial institutions. It was adopted by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PSI DSS) in February of 2017. It was also listed as the standard for the mortgage industry in New York’s new cyber security legislation.
For any financial institution that works in the cloud, MFA is the first safety precaution that can protect both the company and consumers.
If MFA is the visible seatbelt, what are the airbags that provide safety behind-the-scenes?
Cyber Airbags
Email Guardian is a product developed by a US-based company specifically to keep financial information secure for mortgage companies.
Its main job is to watch business email. It checks URLs on incoming messages to watch for phishing attacks. It filters every link and tests linked sites to make sure they are clean. If a link is dangerous, this program catches it and breaks the link before your staff can click-through.
It protects companies from intrusion by providing comprehensive, multi-layered email security and content controls. A web-based application especially for financial institutions and big business, this application handles dynamic security precautions including email encryption and security tracking as well.
Just like how airbags provide a layer of cushioned protection for car drivers and passengers, this innovative technology provides layers of security to keep email hackers at bay and avoid catastrophe.
With MFA and Email Guardian combined, your company data remains out of harm’s way.
Lessons from the Auto Industry
Just as with unsafe automobiles, consumers are reacting to the Equifax disaster by demanding that something be done about info protection for credit companies and mortgage brokers.
Government regulators have begun to react as well. New York introduced groundbreaking legislation to regulate cyber security for financial institutions. Colorado and Vermont are following suit.
When consumers make an industry-wide demand, companies need to pay attention.
Since widespread consumer outrage over information leaks continues making news and influencing regulators, mortgage companies are wise to adopt security measures and establish a basis of protection for their customers.
In the same situation decades ago, auto manufacturers made serious efforts to improve consumer protection for their products. Today carmakers are seen by the public as one of the most safety-conscious industries.
Taking care of consumer data is important if lenders want to be seen in the same light in the future.
ABT’s cutting-edge Email Guardian application provides strict security breach protection and data leakage prevention. Contact us to learn more.
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