Connected and compliant banking tech: 4 ways to strengthen connected device security

Banks must manage an ever-growing number of connected devices, from smartphones and tablets to printers and scanners.

Connected devices are becoming more common because they help bank employees remain productive, whether it’s wearable devices that enable them to communicate from anywhere within the branch or a smartphone that allows them to securely access internal marketing collateral when meeting with a commercial banking customer off-site.

As banking tech advances and more devices connect to their networks, banks need effective ways to protect these devices and the sensitive data they handle. Here are four ways to secure banking technology and strengthen connected device security.

1. Implement stronger authentication

Weak passwords are often an easy entry point for hackers. Stolen, weak or reused passwords account for over 80% of data breaches.

To minimize this risk, banks must implement more effective authentication protocols. This can include stronger multi-factor authentication (MFA) and even passwordless authentication methods, such as biometric-based authentication via fingerprint scanning or passkeys that replace traditional passwords, location-based authentication in branches or at an employee’s verified address to confirm their identity, and one-time password tokens that expire after a short period.

Many financial institutions have either a Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) or Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy — or both. Strengthening authentication can help banks maintain these policies and better support digital tools that enhance employee productivity without jeopardizing enterprise security.

2. Focus on network segmentation

Gone are the days when organizations rely on flat networks. Rather than connecting all devices and systems to a single network, many organizations are now segmenting their networks to make it more difficult for hackers to gain unauthorized access.

Banks can do this with connected devices, isolating this traffic to a sub-network and separating it from their core banking systems. Network segmentation can improve real-time monitoring, streamline the enforcement of security policies, and strengthen access management to ensure that only authorized bank employees have access to specific systems related to their role. Network segmentation can also limit banks’ exposure in the event of a breach, allowing them to contain malware and other malicious threats to one part of their network to remediate the issue faster and avoid significant business disruption.

3. Make regular firmware and software updates

This might seem basic, but to properly secure banking technology, banks must ensure they run the latest firmware and software versions on all their connected devices. Many vendors regularly release patches to address security vulnerabilities, bug fixes that can improve their solutions’ reliability, updates that strengthen regulatory compliance, and new features that improve employee productivity.

These updates are valuable from a performance and security perspective, helping banks strengthen their defenses against emerging threats. Banks can create a monthly or quarterly schedule for regular firmware and software updates and use automated tools to streamline them across their devices and systems.

4. Implement endpoint detection and response (EDR) systems

With more endpoints connecting to their networks, banks need a centralized way to monitor and manage connected devices and other banking tech continuously. An endpoint detection and response system (EDR) gives them this capability.

EDR systems can help banks detect threats, quickly respond to incidents and strengthen security. These systems facilitate real-time threat detection, allowing banks to quickly identify and address suspicious behavior on their networks, like a user accessing a system from an unknown location. They can also gather data to identify patterns of user and system behavior, allowing banks to pinpoint emerging threats. If a bank does experience a breach, EDR systems are effective for incident response management. They provide automated tools that help banks isolate and contain a threat before it can infiltrate other systems.

Connected devices have become a core part of banking operations, but as their use grows, banks need to adapt their security strategy to safeguard core systems. From stronger authentication methods and network segmentation to staying on top of updates and implementing EDR systems, banks can adopt a multi-faceted approach to strengthen connected device security, maintain compliance and ensure employees have all the digital tools they need to be productive and better serve customers.

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