Why Financial Services Needs GLBA Compliant FTP Sites

We have officially entered into an age where staying protected in terms of your business’ mission-critical data doesn’t just involve doing whatever it takes to ward off a potential cyber attack.

Depending on the industry you’re operating in, you also will likely have one or more sets of government regulations that you must adhere to in order to maintain both secure and compliant at all times. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, also commonly referred to as GLBA, is one such set of compliance rules that affects the financial services industry in particular.

If you’re not using a GLBA compliant FTP site, your business is not in GLBA compliance – end of story. As always, maintaining compliance and protecting your business from the type of devastating data breach that could bring even the strongest organization to its knees will require you to keep a few key things in mind. Rest assured, the government takes data security very seriously and you should, too.

The Importance of GLBA Compliance for Financial Services

Doing whatever it takes to maintain compliance with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act is important for a host of different reasons. For starters, it’s important to remember that these rules are designed to keep you, your customers and ultimately your entire business safe from harm first and foremost. They may seem like “a lot of hoops to jump through” or ultimately a lot of work for what appears to be little payoff on the surface, but in the end they create a better line of defense between your organization and the type of people all over the world who wish to do you harm. With the average cost of a single data breach incident rising to $4 million in 2015, these are the types of chances that even large businesses cannot afford to take any longer.

Along the same lines, making an effort to remain GLBA compliant also protects your business’ most important asset: your customers. GLBA compliant FTP sites allow you to protect customer data from unauthorized access to (or use of) customer data that could result in substantial harm like identity theft and more. Even if a data breach doesn’t end up costing your business millions, it could still do an immeasurable amount of damage to your reputation by way of this type of inconvenience.

Finally, staying GLBA compliant puts your business in the best position possible to not only fend off existing threats, but also to face the challenges represented by new ones as they develop.

Though the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was established in 1999, it is updated often to address new issues as they develop. Working to maintain compliant also puts you on the cutting edge of information security by default.

Financial Services FTP Site Providers and GLBA Compliance

One of the best ways to maintain your GLBA compliance involves working with an FTP site provider that is sensitive to and knowledgeable about GLBA compliance. These providers work hard to provide you a service that is already GLBA compliant, putting more of a burden on themselves and less of a burden on you and your people. FTP Today gives you the ability to specify user permissions based on a person’s role within your organization, for example, and also uses advanced technologies like at-rest and in-transit encryption to help guarantee your financial industry data is protected anytime, anywhere, no exceptions.