Safeguarding FinTech Companies Against Cyber Threats and Enhancing Data Security

Recent data breaches at large entities like Bank of America and Microsoft Azure clearly demonstrate the challenges and responses faced by the fintech industry. According to Smartdev, Bank of America customers suffered through a data breach in February 2024, “resulting from a cyberattack on Infosys McCamish Systems, an Infosys subsidiary responsible for data processing. The breach exposed sensitive information including names, social security numbers, and account details.”

It goes without saying that stringent security measures are needed across their networks to combat the vulnerability these institutions are faced with daily. The financial sector has always been a major target for cybercriminals due to the valuable nature of the data they handle. The rise of cyberattacks—from ransomware and data breaches to phishing scams and insider threats—has left many fintech companies sleepless as they scramble to protect sensitive customer information, comply with regulations, and maintain their reputations.

The Global Threat Report published by Crowdstrike revealed that cloud environment intrusions have increased by 75% year over year, highlighting the growing importance of cybersecurity for fintech.

Cyber and Data Security Worries

Valuable Data at Risk
Fintech companies store sensitive financial data, personal details, and transaction histories that can be major money-makers for hackers. Data breaches not only put customer information at risk but can lead to massive financial losses, legal consequences, and tarnished reputations. The need for strong cybersecurity for fintech is crucial to mitigate these risks.

Evolving Cyber Threats
Cybercriminals are becoming more and more sophisticated, using advanced tactics to bypass traditional and some sophisticated security measures. Fintech companies face constant threats from ransomware attacks, phishing schemes, and malware, which put both their operations and their customers at risk.

Compliance Challenges
Fintechs must adhere to strict regulations such as GLBA, FCRA, AML, KYC, and a slew of other industry standards designed to protect customers’ financial data. Non-compliance can result in financial penalties, legal consequences, reputational damage, operational disruption, and a loss of customer trust. Keeping up with these ever-evolving regulations while ensuring top-tier security is no easy feat.

 

Overcoming Data and Cybersecurity Challenges with NetSuite

NetSuite, a leading cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, offers a robust suite of tools that can help fintech companies address these pressing cybersecurity concerns. Here’s how:

Advanced Data Encryption and Security Protocols
NetSuite ensures data protection by implementing high-level encryption and security protocols across its platform. This includes end-to-end encryption for sensitive data and multi-factor authentication (MFA) for secure user access. NetSuite’s secure infrastructure minimizes the risks of unauthorized data access, ensuring compliance with global security standards.

Real-Time Threat Detection and Monitoring
NetSuite’s cloud infrastructure is continuously monitored for potential security vulnerabilities. By leveraging cutting-edge threat detection technologies, it can identify suspicious activity in real-time. This alerts companies to potential cyber threats before they cause any damage. This proactive approach in cybersecurity for fintech helps companies respond faster and prevent breaches.

Seamless Compliance with Industry Regulations
NetSuite is designed to help fintech companies stay compliant with financial regulations. The platform includes built-in tools for generating audit trails, ensuring data privacy, and meeting regulatory requirements such as GDPR and PCI DSS. These tools not only help companies stay compliant but also reduce the risk of penalties associated with non-compliance.

Secure Cloud Infrastructure
NetSuite’s cloud platform ensures that all financial data and business operations are safely stored off-site in highly secure data centers. These data centers are equipped with advanced security measures such as physical access controls, firewalls, and automated backups. This not only protects data from potential attacks but also ensures business continuity in case of an incident, enhancing the overall cybersecurity for fintech companies..

Scalability and Flexibility
As fintech companies grow and expand, their security needs evolve as well. NetSuite’s flexible and scalable architecture allows businesses to quickly adapt and implement new security measures as threats evolve. This ensures that fintech companies can future-proof their security strategies without facing costly and disruptive overhauls.

Collaboration and Role-Based Access Control
NetSuite empowers businesses to establish role-based access controls (RBAC) to ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive information. This granular control enables fintech companies to restrict access to critical data, thereby reducing the risk of insider threats and ensuring that employees only have access to the information they need.

In an era where data security and cyber threats are at the forefront of every fintech company’s mind, having a robust, secure, and compliant platform is no longer optional—it’s essential. NetSuite offers the tools, technology, and expertise to help fintech companies combat these ever-growing cybersecurity challenges.

By leveraging NetSuite’s powerful security infrastructure, real-time monitoring, and compliance features, fintechs can safeguard their operations, mitigate risk, and focus on what matters most: driving innovation and delivering top-notch services to their customers.

Caravel specializes in helping fintech companies remain secure and thrive with NetSuite. To learn more, contact us in the form below.

Case Study | DirectBooks Transforms its Financial Management of Several Entities with NetSuite

The Company

DirectBooks is a fintech company and market leading platform for communication in primary markets, specializing in structured deal data, documentation, and information exchange. The DirectBooks platform offers transformative automation and standardization across global investment grade, high yield, and emerging markets fixed income products.

 

The company’s finance team was preparing itself for major changes and growth in the company’s operations that were going to significantly impact existing processes.

The Challenge

DirectBooks was experiencing many changes, including the introduction of new revenue streams, a larger client base with significantly more customer data to manage, as well as the potential for many new subscriptions to manage and track, which included varying subscription periods and pricing models. All of this on top of a multi-entity, multi-currency financial structure.

 

The company’s invoicing process and revenue recognition had room for improvement; its subscription invoices and revenue recognition were both manual processes before making the switch to NetSuite. Additionally, the company’s existing system was not equipped with the tools to carry out accounting processes for multi-subsidiary consolidation, and the company needed to supplement those functions by using other third-party consolidation and reporting tools for eliminations and FX translation. This was the only way for them to see consolidated financials and reports, which did not allow for the flexibility of real-time reporting.

The Solution

After much research and due diligence, DirectBooks decided to make the shift to NetSuite in order to be prepared to scale with the company’s growth and expand the capabilities of their finance tech-stack.

 

The team chose Caravel as its implementation partner due to its structured approach, robust resources, and hands-on process. Caravel’s experience, knowledge, and segmented approach to implementation made them feel at ease. “I felt like the pacing was perfect, and I never had too much on my plate at a given time,” said Ben Karpas, Finance Associate at DirectBooks.

 

Initial sessions with Caravel began with them learning about the DirectBooks business, current finance tech-stack, and processes so they could tailor NetSuite to their needs. They had clear communication throughout the implementation and beyond, and weekly check-ins were very helpful to keep expectations, deliverables, and the overall product on track and on budget.

 

Caravel assisted with customizations such as custom workflows, CSV imports, custom fields and reporting, and custom client-facing PDF invoice formats. Caravel also helped the DirectBooks team make efficient use of time when it came to data migration by providing standardized templates and giving guidance on what was necessary and what was “nice-to-have”, as well as providing experiences from other customers on how to best carry out not only the migration, but the go-forward use and administration.

 

To read about the significant results DirectBooks experienced, please download the full case study below. 

Webinar on Demand | Revolutionizing Financial Planning & Analysis with AI and Automation

In a live, 30-minute webinar, Caravel’s EPM Consulting Manager, Sadman Rahman, will discuss NetSuite’s NSPB for budgeting and forecasting.

 

He will reveal capabilities that propel businesses to make more informed decisions with:

 

  • Predictive planning using machine learning by offering:

 

    • Forecast Variance and Bias Insights
    • Prediction Insights
    • Anomaly Insights

Mastering FP&A with Automation and Machine Learning

Many organizations are fraught with inaccurate data that is siloed from business operations when conducting planning and budgeting cycles, resulting in arduous manual work that is time-consuming and loaded with errors. Not to mention, relaying this vital information to leadership and key stakeholders can be laborious and flawed.


NetSuite Planning and Budgeting, or NSPB, is a powerful tool used by organizations to budget and forecast utilizing financial data from NetSuite. This robust solution propels finance teams to spend less time on manual tasks, saving them time and energy.


It is collaborative, scalable, automated, and accurate. NSPB provides predictive analytics, sophisticated modeling capabilities, “what-if” scenarios, rolling forecasts, reporting and approval workflows, transparency into performance, and real-time decision-making capability.


Predictive Planning with Machine Learning

The power behind NSPB is due to the integration of machine learning to automate processes, enhance accuracy in forecasting and budgeting, and offer deep insights into financial data, which enables users to make more informed decisions.


With predictive forecasting, machine learning algorithms analyze historical data and identify patterns and trends that financial analysts can miss. This aids in generating more accurate forecasts for future periods based on past performance. These same algorithms can automatically detect anomalies in financial data, which is helpful for pinpointing unusual spending patterns, unexpected variances, or mistakes in budgeting.


NSPB can leverage machine learning to optimize budget allocations based on various constraints and objectives. This might involve recommending adjustments to spending levels across different departments or projects to achieve desired financial outcomes.


Machine learning can help in generating and analyzing multiple scenarios based on different assumptions and inputs, which allows finance professionals to evaluate the potential impact of various business decisions or market changes on their budgets and plans.

Real-Time Data and Collaborative Endeavors

Because NSPB integrates financial planning across the entire organization, data is consolidated from various departments and functions which offers a wholistic view of performance and forecasts. Real-time financial data enables teams to make informed decisions based on the latest information, rather than outdated facts and figures.


With “what-if” scenarios, NSPB allows businesses to create several scenarios based on multiple assumptions and variables, which helps in comprehending potential outcomes of different strategies and decisions. This facilitates better risk management and contingency planning.


The collaborative approach that NSPB takes facilitates different teams to work together and ensures alignment with overall business objectives, assuring that everyone is working for a common purpose. Tools for monitoring performance against budgets and forecasts helps to identify deviations early on, and fosters corrective action to be taken sooner, helping to stay on track with financial goals.



Save Time, Cost, and Hours

Integrating NSPB into your NetSuite instance will greatly help financial teams to cut time on the budgeting cycle. It not only reduces human error in detecting anomalies, it also frees time from analyzing data and allows financial professionals to actually do the work and make decisions. Its out-of-the-box functionality allows teams to leverage these tools to get accurate forecasts without significant upfront costs.


Because all financial data, forecasts, and budgets are stored on a centralized platform, it eliminates the need for spreadsheets and disparate systems across departments. This ensures more accuracy and consistency in financial planning.


Manual work such as data entry, consolidation, and reporting are automated, which reduces time spent on these tasks and allows FP&A teams to focus more on analysis and strategy. Its customized reporting capabilities allows users to generate reports and dashboards that are tailored to specific needs, giving way to a more transparent view into performance and better decision-making. Financial plans and budgets also adhere to regulatory requirements by offering audit trails, version control, and security.

NSPB enhances FP&A by providing a unified, collaborative, and automated solution that seamlessly integrates with NetSuite ERP and empowers organizations to make more intelligent decisions based on accurate data, more precise forecasting, and ultimately improves overall performance and strategic outcomes.


For expert guidance on NSPB and NetSuite and how it can drive your organization to be more efficient and effective, contact us below.

NSPB Tips & Tricks

On Thursday, September, 7th we hosted a live training session about the tips and tricks our team have for NetSuite Planning & Budgeting.

 

Caravel covered the below topics:

– Infolets

– Dashboards

– Cell Level Security

– Clone Migration

– Navigation Flow

– Action Menu

*Agenda subject to change

 

Presenters

Arbi Villena | EPM Director

 

 

Fill out this form to download our case study and be opted in for updates from the Caravel team!

Fill out the form to view the webinar and opt-in for future Caravel updates!

Fill out the form to view the webinar and opt-in for future Caravel updates!

Fill out this form and one of our team members will be in touch shortly!