Bomgar has announced that Gateway Bank of Florida is now using Bomgar Privileged Access to secure employee access to critical systems.
Gateway Bank is made up of three chartered banks: Gateway Bank of Florida, Gateway Bank of Southwest Florida and Gateway Bank of Central Florida. Each charter has three branches for a total of nine locations that the IT administration team is responsible for supporting.
With a dispersed client and employee base, Gateway needed a privileged access solution that would allow its team members to work on remote systems from any location, securely.
Gateway Bank was already a customer and user of Bomgar Remote Support, so when their needs for secure privileged access grew, they turned to Bomgar for help.
Gateway Bank information services general vice president James O’Brien said: “At the time we were using a VPN concentrator for our employees to access the bank network and systems, which required several login steps, each with a different password.
“This was a cumbersome process that was more frustrating than effective. Employees were spending too much time just trying to login, and having to remember so many different passwords wasn’t ideal. We realized that the VPN method of access was okay for internal use, but not for remote workers due to the vulnerabilities that VPNs create.
“Now that we have Bomgar Privileged Access, each employee has a single set of login credentials which gives them the system access they need to do their jobs, whether they are at their desk or offsite.”
When looking for a privileged access solution, O’Brien noted that security was at the top of his requirements list. “We have to comply with the FDIC standards, so we’ve got to be sure that the solutions we have in place have the security features necessary to protect sensitive client and customer data. Not only do we have to protect the credentials our employees used to access our systems, we also have to protect the information housed in those systems.”
O’Brien and his team deployed Bomgar Privileged Access just prior to Hurricane Matthew, which caused destruction and devastation to the Atlantic Coast of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina in October 2016. In order to prepare for the storm, several Gateway Bank employees had to evacuate and work from a safer location.
“We had 10 people working remotely during the storm, all of which were able to work normal hours and complete their tasks using Bomgar Privileged Access. Even though the building was closed, we were still able to produce and check on reports, balance the books, and perform other critical services for our clients. Most hurricanes cause business to shut down completely, but were we able to stay up and running as if everything was normal.”
Looking ahead, O’Brien says the bank is planning to expand, and he is confident that Bomgar will scale nicely with the organization. “We are more productive than we’ve ever been since implementing Bomgar. We are able to support our clients quickly and resolve their issues in a matter of minutes rather than hours or days, and we’re able to employ more offsite employees with the Privileged Access solution. I’m pleased with our success so far and with both of our Bomgar solutions.”