Banco Semear: cybersecurity for digital challenges

Microsoft security solutions are the foundation of the financial institution's compliance strategy

The Semear Bank, a mining bank established in 2006, came with a very clear vision: a focus on the financial inclusion and education of its clients. For those starting to use financial services, this is a crucial decision.

And when a company is dedicated to its purposes, with planning and action, the results come. In 2016, just ten years after the inception of the new institution, Semear Bank reached the milestone of two million clients. In 2019, another achievement: it earned the title of the second most innovative bank in Brazil, according to research conducted by Integratum Intelligence and Market Research and the Dom Cabral Foundation (FDC).

However, how to sustain the strong growth of Semear Bank while maintaining its focus on inclusion and financial education, and at the same time ensuring the cybersecurity of information in times of the General Data Protection Law (LGPD) and remote work? The answer came through a strong consolidation of market positioning and investments in digital restructuring, which are already yielding great results.

Integrated Security for the Cloud

It was from the migration of Semear Bank's server infrastructure to Microsoft Azure cloud that the need to establish security in the virtual environment arose. With the migration to the cloud, cybersecurity solutions continued to remain On-Premises for a while, which hindered the correct monitoring of migrated information and could even limit the benefits obtained from the cloud.

Important issues for the bank's cybersecurity health, such as security control, processes, and standards, did not have coverage beyond the perimeter area, which could allow attackers to exploit any security gaps.

“We evaluated the possible solutions available in the market and, due to synergy with the Microsoft cloud environment, we chose the security solutions from the cloud itself,” says Vinícius Cangussu, who serves as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Data Privacy Officer (DPO) of the financial institution, central roles in any organization for cybersecurity and compliance.

For Vinícius, one of the highlights of the project was the ability to manage and label sensitive information.

“We were able to classify, label, and protect our information. Encrypt everything that was being transmitted, for example, via email. Another benefit is that we started to work with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). We also improved visibility and integration of the security event environment. All of this, among other implementations, provided us with enormous benefits,”

With automatic updates of security patches across all stations, desktops, and users, the concern about having issues due to the lack of these updates has significantly reduced.

Labeling and Data Protection

An example that drives the IT of an organization is that this was one of the decision-making factors for Semear Bank to join the project:

“It doesn’t matter where the information is – whether it's on the device, on your smartphone, or if you shared it with someone through a storage drive: the information will be protected. Moreover, from a cybersecurity perspective, the presence of multi-factor authentication was essential for us. We went from zero classification, labeling, and protection to 100% protection. We didn’t have this resource before,” reveals Vinícius.

Additionally, the entire institution began using Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams as the hub of corporate intelligence. Besides the mobility to work securely from anywhere, all corporate accounts began to receive the same level of protection as those working at headquarters, even before the pandemic.

Successful Partnership

It is not only the solutions that make a difference during the implementation of a project that becomes a success story. The participation of Teltec was essential to demonstrate the effects of the solutions, as well as to implement them securely and effectively, leveraging the expertise of the technical team in Azure and Microsoft solutions.

“Teltec was present all the time, and this greatly accelerated this implementation, even to think about evolution. Information security evolves all the time, and what we did was an important kickstart. We want to increase our security level and will be together more often,” concludes Vinícius Cangussu.It is clear how labeling and data protection make a difference for