Security and Compliance Readiness for a Financial Services Firm

At a glance

A mid-market financial services firm needed to strengthen its security posture ahead of an upcoming regulatory audit while dealing with increasing phishing activity, fragmented security tooling and limited internal resources.

12th Wonder assessed the existing security environment, consolidated endpoint protection, strengthened identity and access controls and established 24/7 security monitoring. Compliance evidence collection was also built into day-to-day operations, reducing the administrative burden on the client's two-person IT team.

The initial programme was completed in 10 weeks and transitioned into an ongoing managed service. Over the following 12 months, the client recorded zero successful ransomware incidents, reduced mean time to detect and respond by 40% and passed its regulatory audit with zero critical findings.

About the client

The client is a mid-market financial services firm operating across several offices and handling client funds and personal information as part of its day-to-day operations.

Its technology environment supports employees working across office and remote settings, making endpoint security, identity management and continuous monitoring important parts of its operational and regulatory responsibilities.

As the business grew, security tools had been introduced at different points to address individual requirements. Over time, this created overlapping technologies, inconsistent protection across endpoints and a growing operational workload for a two-person internal IT team responsible for both security administration and general IT support.

With a regulatory audit approaching and security activity increasing, the firm needed a more structured way to manage security controls, incident response and compliance evidence without adding further pressure to the internal team.

The challenge

Phishing attempts against employees had increased steadily over the previous 18 months. During the preceding year, two ransomware attempts had progressed far enough to reach the network before being contained.

The firm's security environment had also become increasingly fragmented. Three overlapping endpoint agents from different vendors were operating across the estate, while coverage differed between servers, laptops and virtual desktops. The IT team had no consolidated view of security activity across the environment.

Identity management presented additional risk. Dormant accounts remained active, some retained elevated privileges, and access policies were not consistently applied across remote users and administrative accounts.

The upcoming regulatory audit added another layer of pressure. Evidence demonstrating security control coverage was distributed across spreadsheets, ticket exports and email threads. Gathering and validating that information manually fell to the same two-person IT team responsible for keeping everyday IT services running.

Security monitoring also stopped outside office hours, leaving the organization without continuous visibility or a defined response mechanism for incidents occurring overnight or during weekends.

The firm needed to address immediate security gaps before the audit while establishing an operating model that could manage security continuously after the initial remediation work was complete.

What the assessment revealed

12th Wonder began with a structured discovery and security gap assessment covering the technology estate, existing security tools, user access and regulatory control requirements.

The assessment identified four priorities.

Fragmented endpoint protection.

Three overlapping security agents had accumulated across the environment. Coverage was inconsistent, licensing was duplicated and multiple agents were creating conflicts on shared servers.

Identity and privileged-access exposure.

A review identified 40 dormant accounts, including 11 that still held elevated privileges. Multi-factor authentication and conditional access policies were also not consistently enforced across the organization.

Limited security monitoring.

Security events were not monitored continuously. Alerts generated outside normal working hours could remain unattended until the IT team returned, and escalation responsibilities were not formally defined.

Manual compliance evidence management.

Evidence required for the upcoming audit existed across multiple systems and formats. There was no centralized process connecting individual controls with the systems and records needed to demonstrate compliance.

These findings were ranked against the regulatory audit date so that the highest-risk and evidence-dependent controls could be addressed first.

Our approach

1. Security discovery and remediation planning

During the first two weeks, 12th Wonder mapped the technology estate, catalogued the security tools in use and traced regulatory controls to the systems responsible for producing supporting evidence.

The resulting gap assessment became the implementation roadmap, prioritizing security and compliance requirements according to risk and the approaching audit deadline.

2. Endpoint detection and response

Between weeks three and six, endpoint detection and response capabilities were deployed across servers, employee laptops and virtual desktops.

Two legacy security agents were removed as part of the same rollout. Consolidating the endpoint environment reduced overlapping licence costs, eliminated a recurring source of conflicts on shared servers and provided more consistent visibility across the estate.

3. Identity and access management

From weeks five to eight, multi-factor authentication was extended to every member of staff.

Conditional access policies were introduced for remote sign-ins and administrative accounts, while a privileged-access review identified and closed 40 dormant accounts. Eleven of those accounts still held elevated privileges.

This established a more controlled identity environment and reduced unnecessary privileged access before the audit.

4. Continuous monitoring and incident response

During weeks eight to ten, the environment transitioned to 24/7 security monitoring.

12th Wonder established triage and escalation playbooks defining how different alert severities should be assessed, who was responsible for responding and when an incident required escalation.

Alert handling therefore became a managed operational process rather than depending on individual availability within the client's IT team.

5. Compliance reporting and ongoing managed service

Compliance reporting was aligned with the client's audit control framework and automated wherever possible.

Instead of assembling evidence manually immediately before an audit, relevant security and operational records could be captured through normal day-to-day activity.

Following the 10-week implementation, 12th Wonder continued managing security monitoring, incident response and compliance support as an ongoing service, providing the client with continuous coverage beyond the initial remediation programme.

The results

Zero successful ransomware incidents

No successful ransomware incidents were recorded during the 12 months following deployment, compared with three near-miss incidents during the previous year.

Zero critical audit findings

The client passed its regulatory audit without a critical finding, reducing exposure to an estimated $180,000 in potential penalties.

40% faster detection and response

Mean time to detect and respond to security incidents improved by 40% after continuous monitoring and defined escalation procedures were introduced.

Security tooling consolidated

Three overlapping endpoint security agents were consolidated into a single approach, reducing duplicated licensing and removing agent conflicts from the environment.

Close to one working day recovered each week

Automated compliance evidence gathering and managed alert triage reduced the manual workload on the internal IT team by close to one day per week.

24/7 security coverage established

Monitoring no longer ended with the working day. The client gained continuous oversight with documented processes for triage, escalation and incident ownership.

Why it worked

The regulatory audit provided a clear deadline, but the programme was designed around the security environment the client would need after the audit as well.

Controls with immediate evidence requirements were prioritized first, allowing the team to address the most pressing compliance gaps within the 10-week deployment window.

Security improvements were also consolidated wherever possible. Removing legacy agents during the EDR deployment kept the endpoint changes within a coordinated rollout while reducing licensing and compatibility issues.

Defined incident-response playbooks established clear ownership at every severity level. When an alert was generated, the process specified who would assess it, what action was required and when it needed to be escalated.

Most importantly, the environment transitioned from project-based remediation into ongoing management. Continuous monitoring, incident response and compliance reporting became part of normal operations, giving the client a security model that remained active after the audit was complete.

Why 12th Wonder

Financial services organizations need security operations that address cyber risk, regulatory requirements and day-to-day IT realities together.

12th Wonder combines Managed Security and Compliance services with broader IT Infrastructure and Support capabilities, allowing security controls to be managed in the context of the systems, endpoints, identities and operational processes they protect.

For this engagement, our team remained involved from initial assessment and remediation through to continuous monitoring and ongoing security operations. That continuity meant the people managing the environment understood the risks identified during discovery, the controls introduced during implementation and the response procedures established for ongoing operations.

With more than 13 years of experience supporting enterprise IT environments, 12th Wonder provides managed services across cloud, infrastructure, security and IT operations.

We are ISO 9001 certified, NMSDC registered and have delivered more than 100 enterprise projects.

For organizations facing an upcoming compliance review, increasing security activity or an internal IT team stretched across too many responsibilities, 12th Wonder can begin with an assessment of the current environment and establish a practical roadmap for remediation and ongoing management.