Work-From-Anywhere Solutions For NBFCs: A Focus On Seamless Connectivity And Security
Non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) emerged as a leading division of the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) industry by virtue of their abilities at innovating and customising financial solutions for consumers. With smart use of technologies in their operations, they made it easier for individuals and businesses to get loans, make investments, buy insurance policies and make quick payments through digital wallets.
Data is an asset for NBFCs, and they must have quick access to it in their routine operations. Unquestionably, such data and the very apps that NBFC workers use to manage the accounts of their customers must be fully secure against cyber threats.
Anything that is connected to the Internet is vulnerable to viruses, malware, spyware, ransomware and other online risks that lead to data theft and device corruption. In the year 2019, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) reported 3,944,99 incidents of cyber attacks.¹ These included website intrusion & malware propagation, malicious code, phishing, Distributed Denial of Service attacks, website defacements and unauthorised scanning activities, among others.
The need for reliable data services and security solutions has increased since the outbreak of coronavirus as companies are increasingly allowing their employees to work from home. Outside the professionally managed IT environment of their offices, NBFC employees must have efficient remote connectivity options coupled with cybersecurity that is effortless to execute.
Solutions by Tata Tele Business Services
To give NBFCs the freedom to work from anywhere on secure devices connected to fast, efficient and private networks, Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS) offers an impressive portfolio of hosted solutions. Here’s how they support this critical segment of the BFSI industry:
Smart Internet Lease Line
Even as they work from home or any remote location, NBFC professionals can get all the benefits of a secure, always-on, reliable, privatised and uncontended data service with a managed Internet Leased Line solution. It is as good as their operating out of their work station. At TTBS, this is called Smart Internet Lease Line.
As a plug & play remote connectivity service, this service involves no CapEx and brings ease of operation, security and loads of bandwidth for NBFC operations. It works on all desktops and mobiles and is scalable as per changing business needs. Smart Internet Lease Line also has a guaranteed uptime of 99.5% backed by TTBS SLA.
Remote Access on Smart VPN
With Smart VPN, NBFCs build a remotely accessible secure virtual private network (VPN) powered by multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) technology. By connecting to the privatised network, their employees can use the company’s custom software and sensitive data without exposing their work to risks of the public Internet service.
Smart VPN is a zero-CapEx cost-effective connectivity solution that connects entities at the remotest of locations on a shared, secure and private network. Scalability is simple, and it works with all modern devices and operating systems. It is easy to install and can be configured over the basic broadband and Wi-Fi services used at home.
Users also get guaranteed service availability of 99.5% under a clearly defined SLA.
In addition to the convenience they give for sending and receiving information instantly, emails are also significant carriers of threats that can endanger the work and data of NBFCs. They can bring viruses, spyware and malware to employees’ devices and can also fill their Inboxes with spam. TTBS Email Security has been built to uphold the utility and integrity of business mailboxes that receive correspondence and data from hundreds of IDs every day. It helps to distil content and prevent cyber threats from affecting the computer disks, data and networks of users.
Powered by FirstWave Cloud Technology’s ESP™’s email software technology, Cisco-based ESA/IronPort, and Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) technologies, the TTBS Email Security works effectively for Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, Office 365, Gmail and other email domains at on-premise servers.
Besides protecting the users from viruses, malware, spyware and spam, this cloud-based solution also detects and resists advanced persistent threats including spearphishing, whaling, typo domain, and spoofing attacks.
By getting Email Security installed on their employees’ devices, NBFCs get the benefits of data loss prevention, advanced content control, assured disaster recovery and 32 days trace replay.
It also makes the outbound mails secure with a Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) signature that allows senders to associate a domain name with email messages, thus vouching for their authenticity.
This feature-rich security service with advanced antivirus abilities for protecting emails is simple to configure and works in the background without disturbing the usual operations on a device. Its analytics and reporting functions help IT administrators to understand the nature of risks that were targeting the mailboxes of a company’s employees.
Multifactor Authentication
As the cyber threats landscape gets increasingly complex, multifactor authentication (MFA) has become an essential preventive security measure for any business using wired and wireless devices for work. MFA provides additional security layers to reinforce the function of passwords in protecting NBFC user accounts and private data. The multiple factors used to identify users discourage cybercriminals from data breach attempts and exploitation of a company’s networks.
The MFA offered by TTBS is powered by Cisco Duo. It is a zero-trust security solution for privileged access to data and software loaded on personal devices. It is easy to install and offers multiple authentication methods. Consequently, NBFC employees can choose the ones that are suitable for their operations — these may be soft or hard tokens, push authentications, or U2F.
When MFA is installed on a system, unauthorised users cannot remotely (or otherwise) access or manipulate a device, its contents and the network that it is connected to.
Firewalls have been the first line of defence in IT security for more than 25 years. They monitor incoming and outgoing traffic to ensure that unreliable and phoney content does not enter a device and its network.
With the enterprise-grade Virtual Firewall solution provided by TTBS, NBFCs can ensure that their work is not affected by viruses and masked threats from the online space. The cloud-based tool monitors all content accessed on the machine and blocks risks in seconds.
Our Virtual Firewall combines application awareness with a deep-packet inspection to offer businesses a robust control over their database as they detect and block harmful apps, weblinks and files. Based on the industry-leading Palo Alto Networks firewall technology, the Virtual Firewall carries a range of advanced security features and is still simple to use.
NBFC employees working from home or offices can also leverage a DNS technology-based online security solution to prevent complex cyber threats from affecting their data and applications. TTBS offers a web security service powered by Cisco Talos intelligence and Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP). It is called the ‘Do Big Web Security’, and it determines the purpose of web requests, URLs and files on a device. The solution assesses the nature of such content to determine if it is secure, risky or confirmed as malicious. Based on the results obtained, Do Big Web Security routes, blocks or sends the content for further analysis.
Our solution enables users to get real-time and detailed visibility into the online traffic that a device interacts with. A range of features such as web filtering, category-based URL filtering, collective security intelligence and portal reporting eliminate threats before they reach the endpoints of a machine or network. With Do Big Web Security, NBFCs can work from any location without worrying about cybersecurity threats.
