Bank IT Leaders Focus on Remote Workers and Cloud-based IT

During our CyberOps 2021 event, IT leaders of financial institutions participated in a roundtable discussion on how technology has changed due to the pandemic. The panel consisted of CIO’s, Vice Presidents of Technology from regional banks throughout the Midwest.  The bank IT leaders weighed in on policy changes for remote workers, upcoming cloud-based initiatives, and other technology trends they are following.

The Pandemic’s Impact on Remote Workers

One key component the virtual session covered was COVID-19’s impact on cybersecurity, employee device and usage policies, and how financial institutions can most effectively use cloud-based IT solutions.

Since banks deal with sensitive customer data, banks took extra cybersecurity measures to ensure customer confidentiality at the onset of the pandemic. Participants took a closer look at their Incident Response Plan (IRP) and Business Continuity Plans (BCP) and added more frequent reviews – quarterly, and in some cases, monthly. Banks used tools such as incident response logs to track security issues in real-time for employees who remained in the office and those working from home.

Creating a successful, secure, and efficient workspace for remote employees was key to keeping bank business running seamlessly early in the pandemic. Roundtable participants indicated that adapting their equipment policies was critical and that a one-device strategy was ideal. While an investment upfront, having one corporate device per employee means no performance degradation or compatibility issues. To bridge the security gap created by an offsite workforce, each bank amended its acceptable use and cybersecurity policies to maximize and harden each device.

Embracing Cloud-based IT Solutions

The pandemic also nudged banks closer to additional cloud-based IT solutions. Making the switch to Office 365, exploring which systems need to be kept on-premise and managed by an IT provider through the cloud, and looking at the bigger picture from a managed IT standpoint are positive IT solutions that came to light as a result of the pandemic.

While cloud-based IT solutions have always been on the forefront of bank’s strategic roadmap, there are extra security protocols and a heightened level of IT reliability that must be met before rapidly switching.  Each bank leader shared experiences and concerns relating to the security risk, governance and controls involved as they considered cloud-based tools.

To learn more from these Financial IT leaders, watch the the on-demand roundtable session visit: /resources/cyberops_s2/