Jason Mashak
Security compliance checks
PCI DSS
CIS Benchmarks
GDPR
CISA KEVs
ITOM
CNAPP
In this article:

Introduction: A Proactive Approach to BFSI Security

The Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector is no stranger to the ever-increasing threats posed by cybercriminals and the challenges posed by BFSI digital transformation. With the abundance of sensitive customer data, stringent regulatory requirements, and the need to ensure business continuity, the BFSI industry faces a unique set of cybersecurity challenges.

A user paying for something with their card online

However, adopting AI-powered solutions like the Runecast platform can significantly alleviate these pain points and empower companies to proactively discover and manage vulnerabilities and ensure continuous regulatory compliance.

Runecast is an AI-Powered and patented Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) that helps BFSI companies to keep their workloads secure and compliant anywhere. It provides coverage from VMware to cloud, containers and OS in a single integrated solution – to increase visibility, reduce operational overhead, and assess and prioritize vulnerabilities while managing continuous regulatory compliance. Best of all, it deploys in about 15 minutes, and customers tell us they see ROI from its very first scan.

Protect Sensitive Customer Data and Follow BFSI Industry Best Practices

BFSI companies are entrusted with vast amounts of sensitive customer information, ranging from financial records to personal data. The Runecast platform’s AI-driven capabilities can be thought of as BFSI security automation, as Runecast continuously monitors IT environments to discover and identify potential threats – such as misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, or non-compliance with security regulations and vendor best practices – before they can be exploited. This enables BFSI Compliance and IT Operations Management (ITOM) teams with a proactive approach to safeguarding customer data.

In the competitive BFSI sector, adhering to industry best practices is vital for success. By deploying the Runecast platform, organizations can maintain a high standard of cybersecurity readiness. Achieving and exceeding BFSI industry best practices not only ensures a robust security posture but also strengthens the organization's reputation among customers and peers.

Achieve and Maintain Continuous BFSI Compliance

Complying with a multitude of data protection and cybersecurity regulations is paramount for companies in the BFSI industry. Manually preparing to be compliant for a particular audit on a particular day is not true compliance – it’s merely being compliant for an ad-hoc moment in time.

Runecast is purpose-built to provide continuous automated auditing for various BFSI industry compliance regulations, including PCI DSS and CIS Benchmarks, or even regional security regulations such as GDPR (EU), KVKK (Turkey), Cyber Essentials (UK) or Essential Eight (Australia). The platform actively assesses the IT infrastructure, identifies compliance gaps, and provides actionable insights and remediation scripts to rapidly and proactively achieve and maintain adherence to even the most stringent requirements.

"As a bank, it is imperative that our IT operations ensure maximum reliability and security for our clients. Our IT team has too much to work on and simply needs automated proactive monitoring tools. Runecast helps us detect errors in logs and configuration issues before they lead to critical failures. This not only saves dozens of man-hours but also provides a reliable prevention mechanism. Our datacenter's uptime is now greater than ever."

Daniel Ugarte, System Engineer & IT Administrator, Laboral Kutxa

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Mitigate Financial Losses and Ensure Business Continuity

Cybersecurity incidents can (and do) lead to devastating financial losses for BFSI companies, impacting both their bottom line and reputations. The Runecast platform's proactive approach to risk-based vulnerability assessment and management has earned it recommendations by CISA for its built-in discovery and prioritization of CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEVs). And its proactive approach to achieving and maintaining continuous regulatory compliance significantly reduces the risk of breaches and attacks. By preventing incidents before they occur, companies in the BFSI industry can save on incident response, recovery, and legal costs, ultimately safeguarding their financial stability.

Customer trust is the lifeblood of the BFSI sector. Investing in a BFSI automated security solution demonstrates a commitment to protecting customer data and fosters a sense of security among clients. As customers witness a proactive approach to safeguarding their financial information, their trust and loyalty towards the organization are strengthened, leading to longer-lasting customer relationships.

Elderly person using a smartphone for internet banking

It is well known that unplanned downtime resulting from cyber incidents can severely disrupt BFSI operations, potentially resulting in severely disrupted services for customers and a loss to business reputation. To mitigate this threat, the Runecast platform continuously scans IT environments to identify potential misconfigurations, incompatibilities, vulnerabilities and non-compliances that can lead to system downtime. By addressing these issues in real time, the platform helps maintain seamless business continuity and ensures uninterrupted services for customers.

"Our main goal is to serve our customers with a high-end, feature-rich and robust electronic banking environment. With Runecast we can now proactively prevent outages on the systems that provide that environment."

Rob van der Helm, Infrastructure Designer, de Volksbank

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Safeguard Against Emerging Threats

The cybersecurity landscape is ever-evolving, with new and sophisticated threats emerging regularly. Runecast's AI-driven intelligence also evolves to keep BFSI companies ahead of the curve by analyzing the latest threat intelligence and regularly updating security protocols and capabilities. Companies in the BFSI industry can proactively defend against emerging threats and remain resilient in the face of evolving cyber risks. 

“Being a bank, we are systematically cautious, and Runecast has helped us to mitigate risk by improving our security and ensuring we are compliant. We can now also prove our compliance when necessary.”

Renan Avni, IT Group Manager, Near East Bank

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Conclusion: In Runecast They Trust

The BFSI sector's adoption of Runecast has been driven by myriad compelling motivators. From protecting sensitive customer data to ensuring compliance with regulations and mitigating financial losses, Runecast enables a comprehensive approach to proactively managing vulnerabilities and maintaining continuous compliance. For the most sensitive environments, Runecast can run entirely on-premises and even air-gapped.

By embracing AI-driven, automated security solutions, BFSI companies can enhance customer trust, safeguard against emerging threats, ensure business continuity, and position themselves at the forefront of the BFSI industry's cybersecurity landscape.

A sample of Runecast customers in the BFSI sector:

Logos of HarborOne Bank, Erste Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, Swedbank
(From left) HarborOne Bank, Erste Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, Swedbank

Runecast Highlights

  • Deploys and shows results within minutes, leading customers to report immediate ROI from the very first scan
  • Highest ratings for customer satisfaction and among the lowest false positive rates for discovering vulnerabilities, according to public customer reviews (e.g. G2, Capterra)
  • One of the only solutions providing true air-gapped deployment (with offline update possibilities)
  • Built by Admins for Admins, designed to require no learning curve, to help alleviate the pains of skills gaps and labor shortages
  • Helps toward ESG policies by making teams way more efficient (customers regularly report 75-90% time savings in the areas of troubleshooting, upgrade planning and preparation for audits)

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