ImageQuest

Move Your Team Off VPN and Onto More Secure Remote Work Technology

by Jay Mallory, Executive Vice President ImageQuest

When the COVID-19 restrictions took effect, your bank successfully transitioned your employees to work from home. Or did you?

Do you feel confident your banking team is staying secure and compliant while working from home?

The potential for security gaps rises when workers leave your secure network environment. This gap grows the more extended a work-fromhome edict is in effect.

If you have employees remoting in from home through a VPN, your internal IT staff or outsourced IT provider may not know:

• If your employee’s computer has the latest security patches and updates. • If your employee is the only one using the machine. • What sites are being accessed by your employee. • How secure the employee’s home Wi-Fi connection is. • Whether the employee’s machine is being scanned regularly by security software.

Even if your employees are following compliance regulations, you may be unable to document that compliance for an auditor.

We have a solution that resolves those issues – one that even controls who uses the machine.

It’s called Desktop-as-a-Service, or virtual desktop. We have regulated customers who have been using it successfully for a while now, so it’s no longer a ‘bleeding edge’ solution.

Desktop-as-a-Service, also known as DaaS, hosts all your data, your applications – everything on your current on-premises server and computers – in the cloud. Your team works with what’s called a “Thin or Zero Client” – a device that has nothing stored or loaded on it except software to access your cloud environment.

Whether your loan officer is in the office or working from home, he or she sees the same screen and can do the same work. When they review a loan application or payment status, the document remains in the cloud, and any notes or comments on the file also stay in the cloud.

On a broadband connection, workers should see no delays. Employees simply log in to an application on their desktop, which offers extensive physical and cybersecurity through many layers of protection, including two-factor authentication. Redundant power and internet, plus failover to another data center, add more resiliency than hosting your data in your server room. All security, including backups, updates, and patches, are done through the one location, so any time an employee logs in to work, he or she is accessing the latest, patched version of the software application.

The Cloud data center also provides regulatory compliance. We use data centers with a SOC 2 Type 2 attestation, which means their data practices and policies are audited annually to ensure they follow best practices in data security and privacy.

Unless someone creeps up and takes a photo of a screen, it is almost impossible for data to be stolen from a remote worker using DaaS. This alleviates the concern of a laptop full of client information being stolen from a car – or burgled from the employee’s home.

Setting up DaaS allows complete customization in terms of who can access what records and files, further enhancing compliance with data regulations.

Having one location in the cloud ensures your IT team retains the control it needs to keep your bank compliant and secure – no matter where someone is physically working.

When this restricted era caused by COVID-19 ends, DaaS will continue to be useful because of the tremendous location-agnostic flexibility it provides your bank team. It will be easier on your capital expense budget too.

DaaS costs become a predictable monthly recurring cost on your operating budget. And DaaS gives you a longer lifecycle for desktops and laptops.

DaaS can be an excellent solution for modern banking. Contact us to learn more about how it would work specifically for your bank.

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