How to Optimise Remote Work in Banking

Remote workers in banking, the problems, and how SCiON helps

With the rise of ‘new normal’, came a new way of working. In the last year and a half, many started working from home to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This brought new challenges, especially in the banking sector. Although the overwhelming response has been people enjoying the move to work from home - there are elements we need to keep in mind if we want to make this a permanent solution, even after the pandemic.

Remote working

In various industries, many employees have expressed their preference for working from home. With the proof that they can work effectively from home, remote work and flexible hours has become an employee demand rather than a perk. Research done by the International Workplace Group found that 80% of employees would not take a job if it did not offer flexibility.

As employees start working remotely, either temporarily or permanently after the pandemic, banks have questions to answer. Most pertinently, how to ensure the safety of the organisation and client data.

However, stringent security measures that have been put in place to enable safe remote working has had an impact on productivity worldwide. For many industries, security has often come at the expense of the user experience, for both employees and customers alike. Despite this, a study by Standford of 16,000 workers over 9 months found that working from home increases productivity by 13%. This increase in performance was due to more calls per minute attributed to a quieter, more convenient working environment and working more minutes per shift because of fewer breaks and sick days.

This has led organisations to attempt at creating the perfect remote working environment without the downsides of security. This may yet be possible with Anapaya’s solutions.

Problems with remote work

The biggest problem facing remote workers is issues with internet security and bad connection. Companies will struggle to stay connected to their employees with patchy and unreliable home internet service.

Data company Statista estimated that 91% of households across Europe had internet access in comparison to 88% in 2018. This increase was driven, in part, by data-driven video calls and conferences. In addition to this, it was estimated by the Consumer Choice Center that 45% of EU households are underserved in the internet department. Slow internet connections limit the speed of communication and file transfers, making it near impossible for employees to work effectively from home - through no fault of their own.

This same trend was found in the UK, where employees with bad connections were expected to lose up to 30 minutes per day due to poor internet.

Issues with cybersecurity

Because of the abrupt nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the start of remote work, there wasn’t sufficient time to ensure that employees were correctly set up with internet speeds and security. This led to the rise of new threats to cybersecurity - ones that haven’t been properly considered before the move to remote work.

In a survey conducted by Ponemon Institute, respondents named specific threats which were cause for concern. These threats include:

• Lack of security: IT and security professionals worry about the inability to manage or control the physical and cybersecurity of a remote worker.
• Risks to data: 71% of respondents said remote workers put the organisation at risk for data breaches, and 57% said that remote workers are prime targets for cybercriminals.
• Inability to respond to cyberattacks: Respondents indicated that organisations are not properly equipped to respond to remote cyberattacks.
• Vulnerabilities with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): 67% of respondents said that the use of personal devices to access business-critical applications has been harmful to their security posture.

These issues become particularly imperative to pay attention to when it comes to banking. Working in finances means you work with highly confidential assets and personal information, and putting this at risk becomes detrimental to your business.

Protect your business

There are significant issues with time, financial losses and security lapses when it comes to remote workers’ internet connections. So, this blog post will clarify, how to ensure your business is protected - especially since Homeoffice is here to stay.

It goes without saying that financial data is incredibly sensitive. Financial institutions rely on their reputation as trustworthy and failing to ensure this trustworthiness leads to significant costs.

Anapaya delivers the SCION-Internet, and brings it to the market with its global network and partnering internet service providers (ISPs). Essentially, it is a prime solution for remote work internet security and speed.

More recently, Anapaya worked on the SSFN project to make remote online connections more secure and reliable. End-users or employees of SSFN participants are able to securely connect from home or any other remote location without accessibility, performance or security concerns through the SCION network.

SCION is a secure and reliable open inter-domain routing protocol designed to provide control and security to the information senders. By design, SCION offers control, scalability, reliability and security for your connections with remote workers. The multipath communication not only offers a better connection for users but also provides space for architecture that protects your information online with full security.

The SCION-Internet is an international ecosystem of internet, telecom and cloud service providers that collaborate to create a new secure and reliable internet.

Anapaya has resources specifically dedicated to financial data and transfer security, much like the SSFN. Through Anapaya EDGE gateways, your business will be able to connect to what is essentially a private network (with the benefits and convenience of using the internet) through your own service provider. In our case study, we highlight that despite each partner using different ISPs, we were able to set up secure routes that connected the organisations´ entire business ecosystem.

Results

The SCION-internet provides authenticated traffic and enables banks to isolate geographical areas that data can travel through for additional security. A simple and efficient response to remote cybersecurity.

SCION makes it impervious to routing attacks and highly resilient to DDoS attacks. This ensures that finance companies are protected whenever they conduct business online. In addition, the fast failover solutions offered by Anapaya enable remote workers to continue working without any noticeable drop in service even if a central resource fails, boosting the trustworthiness of the bank in question for their clients.

In conclusion

The reality that most businesses face is that their employees want to work from home. It makes sense - more flexible hours and less travel time have been shown to lead to increased productivity. However, when you are in the business of banking and dealing with highly confidential information, it is imperative to have your employees working from secure networks that aren’t as vulnerable as they are now.

Anapaya provides these solutions, and you should take advantage of them as soon as possible. Contact us to start adapting to reality now.