Cybersecurity is at a crossroads. The financial services industry is increasingly relying on digital platforms, which means cyberattacks have grown more complex and frequent. Not only have cybercriminals become more aggressive but also sophisticated, making every vulnerability to breach sensitive financial data. Financial institutions have seen 300X more cyberattacks than other companies over the past two years. This is where Zero Trust Segmentation, an advanced cybersecurity approach that facilitates tackling modern threats, comes into play.
What is the core notion of this? Always verify, never trust. While traditional network security assumes trust within the network, ZTS considers that every component, whether human or machine, has potential to be compromised. For financial services, which handle highly sensitive customer data and operate under strict regulations, adopting a Zero Trust approach is no longer optional. With financial cybercrime increasing in both frequency and complexity, solutions like Zero Trust Segmentation are critical for protecting data, maintaining trust, and ensuring regulatory compliance.
In this blog, we will take a deep dive into how Reaktr.ai leverages ZTS to enhance the security of financial networks, reducing attack surfaces while ensuring scalability.
The Significance of Zero Trust Segmentation
At its core, ZTS is about minimizing risk by isolating workloads and ensuring that access is strictly controlled and constantly monitored. Unlike traditional network segmentation, which divides the network into broad areas, it creates microsegments within the network, each with its own security policies and access controls.
Microsegmentation reduces the attack surface by limiting lateral movement within a network, which is crucial for financial services handling vast amounts of sensitive data. A recent Gartner report notes that by 2025, over 60% of enterprises will adopt microsegmentation as a foundational component of Zero Trust architecture, a significant increase from today’s adoption rates.
In the Zero Trust framework, trust is established only after continuous validation of every access request—whether it’s from a user, device, or application. This shift is necessary because traditional perimeter-based security models are inadequate in an environment where users and devices are often accessing data from remote locations and diverse networks.
For financial services, the benefits are clear: by ensuring that each network segment is secured and continuously monitored, institutions can greatly reduce the risk of large-scale breaches and limit the damage from potential attacks.
How Zero Trust Segmentation Works in Financial Services
In the world of finance, where data security isn’t just important—it’s everything—ZTS offers a practical way to safeguard critical assets. But how does it work? It secures financial services by applying granular security policies across multiple use cases, from protecting customer data to securing internal systems and financial transactions.
Take the challenge of protecting customer data: by segmenting networks down to individual systems, even if one area is compromised, the rest of the system remains protected. This isolation minimizes the chances of lateral movement by an attacker, reducing the impact of any breach. In fact, Forrester’s report revealed that organizations implementing Zero Trust frameworks experience a 50% reduction in the overall risk of cyberattacks.
Securing unmanaged devices is another critical factor in financial services, where third-party contractors, clients, and even employees are accessing data through potentially unsecured devices. ZTS helps by applying device-specific security policies, ensuring that every connection to the network is subject to verification and monitoring.
Industry leaders like Illumio and Zscaler have shown that segmentation dramatically reduces risks in cloud environments, particularly in hybrid cloud setups where financial services often struggle with security gaps. A study also noted that 95% of cloud security failures are caused by customer misconfigurations, something that ZTS can help eliminate.
Customer Success Story: How Reaktr.ai Delivered Zero Trust Segmentation for a Leading Financial Institution
Let’s move from theory to practice. One of Reaktr.ai’s clients, a major financial institution, was struggling with a familiar set of challenges: growing cyber threats, outdated security infrastructure, and compliance pressures. The client’s traditional network segmentation approach wasn’t sufficient to handle the modern cybersecurity landscape, leading to inefficient security practices and an increased risk of breaches.
Reaktr.ai stepped in to help this institution implement a ZTS model that transformed how it approached security. The institution’s primary challenges were:
- Disjointed network visibility: Each department operated in silos, making it nearly impossible to maintain a unified security view.
- Complex compliance requirements: Meeting industry regulations like PSD2 and GDPR required real-time monitoring and reporting.
- Growing cyber threats: Sophisticated attacks targeted customer data, and their legacy security infrastructure wasn’t up to the task.
After implementing Reaktr.ai’s ZTS solution, the institution saw remarkable results:
- Improved threat detection by 60%: AI-powered segmentation tools allowed the institution to monitor and contain suspicious activities before they could escalate.
- Reduced compliance costs by 20%: With automated reporting and continuous monitoring, the institution met regulatory standards with ease.
- Decreased risk by 40%: Segmenting the network meant that even if a breach occurred in one area, it didn’t compromise the rest of the system.
How Reaktr.ai’s Expertise Stands Out
At Reaktr.ai, we understand that financial institutions need security solutions that are as dynamic and flexible as their operations. Our ZTS approach doesn’t just offer basic protections; it’s designed to grow with your network, providing scalable, customizable solutions that evolve with your business.
One thing that makes Reaktr.ai stand out is our AI-powered segmentation capabilities. By integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning into our Zero Trust framework, we can provide financial institutions with real-time visibility and insights, enabling them to make proactive security decisions. AI can reduce security breaches by up to 40%, particularly in industries like finance, where sensitive data is always at risk.
Our approach also emphasizes seamless integration with cloud platforms, allowing financial services to maintain security across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. And, of course, regulatory compliance is baked into everything we do, ensuring that you meet all the necessary standards without overburdening your teams.
Why Financial Institutions Need to Adopt Zero Trust Segmentation Now
As the financial sector becomes more interconnected, cyber threats will only increase. By 2026, over 85% of large enterprises will have adopted some form of Zero Trust model, a clear indicator of its importance in modern cybersecurity strategies.
For financial services, the cost of inaction is high. In 2023 alone, the financial services sector faced more than $18 billion in data breach costs, a figure that’s expected to rise if companies don’t prioritize their cybersecurity efforts. ZTS offers a proactive defense against modern threats, isolating attacks and preventing them from spreading across systems.
With financial institutions handling massive volumes of sensitive data, a breach isn’t just costly—it can irreparably damage customer trust. Adopting ZTS now is not just a technical upgrade; it’s a strategic move, allowing financial institutions to protect their assets and build trust with their customers.
Conclusion: Transforming Financial Security with Reaktr.ai
The future of cybersecurity in financial services lies in adopting robust, scalable, and forward-thinking models like ZTS. As threats grow more sophisticated, so too must the defenses that institutions put in place. Reaktr.ai offers the expertise, tools, and technology to help financial institutions make this transition seamlessly.
With the right strategy, financial services can not only mitigate risks but also turn security into a competitive advantage. Let Reaktr.ai show you how zero trust security can protect your most valuable assets, both today and in the future.
