From Technical Debt to Identity-First Security: A Roadmap for Regional Banks

For regional banks, strong security is a legal and ethical responsibility. Your customers expect you to protect their assets, and regulators expect you to meet their standards. Banks have a well-earned reputation for strong physical security, with strong locks, vaults, and guards. But what about digital security?

Technical debt sounds obscure, but it couldn’t be more relatable. We’ve all made these kinds of compromises, often with expensive consequences. It’s choosing the cheaper option and spending twice as much on repairs. It’s taking the shortcut that ends up costing you more in the long run.

Technical debt is a fact of life for you and me, and for many small to mid-sized organizations like regional banks. They face the same regulatory burden and security risk as large banks with fewer resources, so every decision is a tough one to make.

So how did we get here? It’s not because we don’t care about having strong security. Technical debt grows as we are forced to make compromises – a new roof or a new security system, more help or a stronger IAM. All along the way, through mergers and acquisitions, through growth and change, your organization’s tech stack evolves. New tools are added and old ones are abandoned, and before you know it you have a patchwork of tools barely stitched together, or worse, completely siloed.

In the context of identity security, the concept of technical debt is a way to describe those hidden costs. It's the accumulation of shortcuts, fragmented systems, and unaddressed vulnerabilities – a drip, drip, drip that drains the life out of your IT security teams.

The High Cost of Technical Debt 

Is technical debt holding your bank hostage? There are several ways that technical debt can sabotage your success and hinder growth. Like a snowball rolling down a hill, technical debt is a compounding problem that only gets worse the longer you ignore it.

There are several ways that technical debt can be a serious liability for your bank:

• Outdated Systems: Technical debt often means hanging on to legacy systems that were never designed to withstand modern cyber threats. Outdated tools are prime targets for attackers.
• Fragmented Security Posture: Business is fluid, and each day brings new challenges. As businesses grow, their needs change, and new technology, services, and solutions are added. Inevitably, as new capabilities are required, even more services and solutions are added. This patchwork of systems is a self-perpetuating cycle, causing more technical debt with every attempt to correct it, leading to inconsistent security policies and fragmented controls across different platforms.
• Regulatory Penalties and Reputational Damage: Technical debt makes it exceedingly difficult to meet regulatory standards. Regulators may impose hefty fines and sanctions, not to mention the erosion of customer trust and harm to your reputation.
• Higher Software and Hardware Costs: Cheaper isn’t always cheaper. Maintaining legacy systems can be surprisingly expensive and upgrading these systems becomes more costly the longer the debt accumulates.
• Manual Workarounds and Redundancy: When systems don't integrate properly (due to technical debt), employees inevitably get creative, creating manual workarounds that increase the likelihood of human error and slow down critical operations.
• Never-Ending Maintenance: Buried under a mountain of technical debt, IT teams are perpetually stuck in "firefighting" mode, spending a disproportionate amount of time on maintaining outdated systems, fixing recurring bugs, and patching over existing problems without fully solving any of them.
• Inability to Adopt New Technologies: Whether it's connecting with fintech partners, implementing AI-driven analytics, or offering seamless digital banking experiences, legacy systems often lack the flexibility and APIs to integrate with modern solutions. Technical debt can be an obstacle for banks looking to adopt new, more efficient, and customer-friendly technologies.
• Poor Customer Experience: Customers today expect seamless, intuitive digital interactions. Technical debt frustrates customers stuck with clunky online portals, slow transaction processing, and limited self-service options, potentially driving them to your competitors.

Technical debt is a silent saboteur, slowly but surely eating away at the very foundation of your bank. When we fail to manage our technical debt, your tech stack, which should be an engine for growth, becomes a burden that demands constant attention, frustrates your customers and employees, and leaves you vulnerable.

Identity-First Security for Regional Banks

If you want to know about physical security, ask a bank’s security team. From armed guards to time-release vaults, banks invest a lot in physical security to protect their property and the lives of their customers and employees. But how is your bank’s cybersecurity?

Identity-First Security recognizes identity – whether it's a human user, a device, or an application – as the primary attack vector for most cybercriminals.

To protect customer and employee identities, we must have rigorous tools and processes in place to scrutinize every attempt to access a resource based on who or what is making the request, regardless of their physical location or network connection, a key principle of Zero Trust.

Key Pillars of an Identity-First Approach

A Phased Roadmap: From Technical Debt to Identity-First Security

Phase 1: Assessment

1. Audit & Discovery: Inventory all human and non-human identities, their access, and associated systems, including unmanaged, abandoned, or “shadow” IT accounts.  
2. Technical Debt Mapping: Investigate and map your IAM technical debt areas (legacy systems, manual processes, weak controls). 
3. Develop a Remediation Plan: Set priorities for remediation based on relative risk and impact. 

Phase 2: Consolidation and Modernization

1. Centralized Identity Store: Establish a single source of truth for identities with a modernized Active Directory or the implementation of an identity fabric. 
2. Strong Authentication: Require MFA for all critical applications and services. 
3. User Lifecycle Management: Automate provisioning and de-provisioning workflows for employees and customers. 
4. Put the Customer First: Focus on enhancing customer experience and security for digital banking channels first for immediate business impact and visibility. 

Phase 3: Continuous Optimization

1. Granular Access Control: Implement Role-Based Access Controls and gradually move towards Account-Based Access Controls. 
2. Privileged Access Management (PAM): Secure and monitor your most privileged accounts with PAM.  
3. Identity Governance: Automate access reviews and enforce segregation of duties. 

Protecting Your Bank's Future with Identity-First Security

As a community-based service provider, your customers and community are counting on you to be a good steward of their assets, which includes their identities. That’s why it’s imperative that you tackle your technical debt and embrace an Identity-First Security posture. By strategically evaluating, consolidating, and modernizing your identity infrastructure, even small to mid-sized regional banks can transform their tech stack from a silent saboteur into a powerful engine for growth. 

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.