Every login verified. No adviser slowed down.

Client name withheld.A private wealth management firm with three offices
Sector
Finance
The question
S · Who should have access?
  • BeforeA password was all it took, from any device.

    AfterPhishing-resistant sign-in, from managed devices only.

  • BeforeTwo shared admin accounts that everybody knew.

    AfterEvery admin action signed by a named person.

  • BeforeEvery client folder open to the whole firm.

    AfterEach client’s files open to the advisers who serve them.

Context

The firm’s advisers work from its offices, from home and from their clients’ kitchen tables. Their inboxes and client files hold exactly what a fraudster wants: balances, account numbers and the authority to move money.

The problem

  • A stolen password would have opened email, the client files and the custodian portal, from anywhere.
  • The admin accounts were shared, so nobody could say who had changed what.
  • The phishing emails reaching advisers were getting better every quarter.

05.1What we did

The work, service by service.

  1. Identity & accessSign-in that can’t be phishedPasskeys and hardware keys for everyone, fitted to the risk: strong on client data and money movement, quiet on everything else. Shared admin accounts retired.
  2. Devices & infrastructureOnly managed devices get inEvery laptop and phone enrolled, encrypted and kept current. A device that isn’t managed can’t reach client data, whoever is holding it.
  3. Data protection & governanceClient files follow the clientFiles labelled by client and sensitivity, with access tied to the adviser relationship rather than the folder they happen to sit in.

05.2Under the hood

The route it runs along.

  1. 01Adviser
  2. 02Verified sign-in
  3. 03Managed device
  4. 04Client files
An adviser reaches a client’s files only through a sign-in that can’t be phished, on a device the firm manages, and only for the clients they serve.

05.3What changed

What is different now.

  • A stolen password is no longer enough to get in.
  • Every change to the firm’s systems belongs to a person.
  • Advisers sign in faster than before, from the devices they already carry.