Passwords in the Finance Industry

Revolutionary Technology by GateKeeper Boosts Password Security of Florida Financial Firm

GateKeeper Enterprise, the innovative proximity-based two-factor authentication solution, announced the release of its 2FA case study with BARR Financial Services, LLC, a financial advisory firm based in Winter Park, Florida. After deploying the patented GateKeeper authentication solution, BARR Financial slashed its helpdesk ticket requests by 50 percent.

Kirk BARR Young, the CEO of BARR Financial Services, had more than 35 years of professional financial investment experience when his team tackled the burgeoning amount of helpdesk tickets generated by users with password-related issues — an average of four tickets each week.

BARR Financial sold services, not products. As a life-planning firm focused on family, BARR Financial always aimed to operate at the highest standard in a sector where the legal responsibility to protect the security and data of its clientele was vital.

BARR Financial realized that in order to best preserve the financial well-being of its clients, it needed to streamline the interactive process with its evolving consumer base, as well as safeguard against the potential security risks presented by cyberattacks and insider threats. The answer was GateKeeper’s advanced access control solution for computers and passwords. BARR Financial would, yet again, go above and beyond to protect its clientele.

Any IT manager operating in the financial vertical understands the challenges faced by BARR Financial. According to the Gartner Group, between 20% to 50% of all helpdesk calls are for password resets and have become a burden for all enterprises.

There were three key challenges that BARR Financial wanted to resolve:
1. Passwords needed to be complex and impenetrable, yet users often created passwords that were easy to remember and used them both at home and at work, resulting in major security issues.
2. User logins were far too slow. Sluggish logins had to be expedited without compromising security.
3. Password policies and updates needed to be automated and become more efficient.

BARR Financial was not alone in seeking solutions to these problems. A Microsoft Security article reported that an average of one in every 250 corporate accounts was compromised each month and that people reused an average of five total passwords, both business and personal. A universal shift away from the use of passwords had developed, with organizations in crucial sectors exploring ways to implement passwordless authentication.

Dr. Sid Potbhare, CEO of Untethered Labs, tackled these challenges when his team designed GateKeeper Enterprise to solve the need for user-centric passwordless and continuous authentication. GateKeeper is a user-friendly authentication solution that ensures individual workstation security and privacy in small and large businesses with a patented combination of hardware and software based on real-life human behaviour:

• Co-workers share the same computers
• People walk away from their desks without logging out
• Knowingly or unknowingly, employees engage in behavior that can result in confidential data loss — critical concerns in the financial sector

Dr. Potbhare stated the challenge: “How can an organization implement robust security policies that go beyond the first and only authentication to make sure data is not put at risk at the most commonly breached endpoint in network security – the person using the computer?”

GateKeeper sat down with BARR Financial’s upper management team to find answers to these challenges and implement solutions:
1. GateKeeper’s password manager provided one-time passwords (TOTP), eliminating the need for SMS or manual authentication.
2. GateKeeper’s proximity-based wireless access tokens streamlined the login process, automatically unlocking and auto-locking the user’s computer while enhancing security by monitoring real-time access.
3. GateKeeper’s 2FA method used a secret PIN and the security token’s proximity for hands-free authentication and instant logins.

After implementing GateKeeper’s 2FA and password management solutions, BARR Financial slashed its helpdesk tickets down to an average of just two tickets per user each month and streamlined the login process. Mr. Kirk Young, BARR Financial CEO, said, “GateKeeper just works. No longer typing passwords. We walk up to the computer, and everything is ready for us. We love GateKeeper and could not live without it.”

About GateKeeper

Enterprise 2FA and password management system that seamlessly accesses computers, websites, and software, GateKeeper provides passwordless instant login and auto-locks PCs with a security token, allowing for a password-free experience. To learn more, visit the GateKeeper website https://gkaccess.com.

CONTACT

Name: Dr Sid Potbhare
Address: 5000 College Ave. Suite 2103, College Park, MD 20740 USA
Telephone: 240-547-5446
Email: info@gkaccess.com
Website: https://www.gkaccess.com/