Secure access management solutions are a must-have for financial institutions that want to stay as secure and compliant as possible, given that internal threats represent a large percentage of breaches affecting the financial services industry, the need for a quickly deployed and agile access control system is at the top of every C-level executive’s list. In order to fully protect mission critical services, data and systems, financial institutions are increasingly investing in Privileged Access Management and other sophisticated capabilities that also address regulatory compliance. The kinds of breaches that occur in financial institutions can halt trading, impact significant financial transactions and could include unauthorized account transfers, identity theft (generating information that can be sold on the dark web as part of a multi-billion criminal industry) and accessing of strategic and confidential information held by investment banks, venture capital firms, and more. Organizations who fail to protect confidential information can face legal penalties, regulatory fines, short- and long-term reputational damage, and the collapse of businesses including credit card issuance and insurance. Privileged accounts are necessary to coordinate often complex tools, processes, and workflows internal to institutions, but also externally given the connected nature of the industry, from trading to clearing and settlement.

The healthcare industry is especially vulnerable to attacks, and insider threats have been on the rise as it has become more clear how lucrative it is to steal not only personal health information, but personal identity information, credit card and insurance data, and more. As digital health innovations come online, and a growing number of patients are being seen virtually via telemedicine platforms, healthcare providers and insurers are investing in cyber security solutions that reduce the risk of not only data loss, but the potential loss of life. Medical records, prescriptions (including for opioids), and real time health monitoring add to the attraction and ransom attacks have become more prevalent given the high cost associated with the disruption of networks and systems, including instances where entire medical centers have been compromised. Healthcare systems have historically been the victim of internal and external threats, and despite the complexity associated with having to add more security to existing systems, this is no longer an option for IT teams responsible for ensuring the integrity of data or for management teams responsible for ensuring the integrity of the reputation and financial performance of healthcare companies. As more and more endpoints are added with new connected devices, Privileged Account Management solutions are also able to protect those devices and limit the sprawl of a breach should that breach be identified and subsequently stopped. With insider threats on the rise, the solutions offered by Ironsphere are investments in reducing risk by more than fifty percent.

As pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies move toward greater digitalization and the sharing and storage of highly valuable data, their digital security practices, including Privileged Access Management to protect against insider threats, are becoming more critical. Many pharma labs and manufacturing facilities, for example, are relying on the Industrial Internet of Things to automate and improve their highly sensitive processes. In addition to securing physical endpoints and entire manufacturing plants, pharma and biotech companies store and share proprietary information associated with drugs, medical devices, and other advances. Given the extremely sensitive nature of data collected and used by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in clinical trials and patient management, security measures are particularly important to ensure trust and protect reputations. Traditional cybersecurity solutions are focused on reporting intrusions after they occur, focused on incident response. New solutions are addressing the prevention of attacks, and secure access management technologies, like those Ironsphere has perfected in our own labs, are becoming a cornerstone of a comprehensive means to reduce the risk of growing insider threats.

Government agencies at the federal, state and local level, are among the largest guardians of vast amounts of sensitive data, whether it’s information regarding citizens and visitors, military data, military intelligence, tax records, public safety or security systems. Agencies within the municipal, state and federal governments are increasingly finding themselves the targets of insider threats and are putting in place Privileged Access Management platforms, including those Ironsphere provides. The risks are not just financial: a compromise of government data could jeopardize national security and cause harm and even loss of life, potentially on a huge scale. To provide guidance, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a variety of frameworks and guidance in the US, while initiatives including GDPR are being put in place to protect the privacy of taxpayers and other individuals. Ironsphere’s secure access management solutions enable agencies to quickly and cost effectively protect systems, while enabling those agencies to comply with many governmental and regulatory bodies and standards.