Financial services live and die by trust. Yet in a digital-first world, that trust is tested daily by cyber threats, insider risks, regulatory change, and the sheer pace of innovation.

The Zero Trust model is often described as a cybersecurity “philosophy”, but for finance leaders, it’s much more than that. It’s a practical strategy for protecting data, meeting compliance demands, and ensuring resilience without sacrificing agility or customer experience.

At Synapse, we help financial institutions evolve from legacy defences to adaptive, intelligence-driven security frameworks. Here’s how to build a Zero Trust strategy that actually lasts.

What Zero Trust Really Means

Zero Trust flips the traditional “castle-and-moat” model on its head. Instead of assuming everything inside your network is safe, it assumes no user, device, or system is trustworthy by default, whether they sit in your office, your cloud, or your supply chain.

At its core, Zero Trust means:

• Continuous Verification - every access request is authenticated and authorised in real time.

• Least Privilege Access - users only get what they need, nothing more.

• Micro-segmentation - networks are divided into secure zones to contain breaches.

• Visibility and Analytics – every action is logged, analysed, and contextualised.

For finance, this model provides a path to meet the expectations of regulators like the FCA and PRA, while reducing risk across sprawling hybrid infrastructures.

Why Zero Trust Matters More in Finance

Financial organisations sit at the intersection of value and vulnerability. You’re managing millions of sensitive records, legacy systems, and external integrations all while facing the highest levels of scrutiny.

Common challenges Zero Trust addresses:

• Legacy authentication and network perimeter models.

• Shadow IT and third-party risk in complex supply chains.

• Remote/hybrid work introducing uncontrolled endpoints.

• Pressure to meet ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and GDPR standards.

• Increased threat of ransomware and insider breaches.

Business outcomes:

• Reduced breach impact and dwell time.

• Improved auditability and compliance reporting.

• Faster incident response through unified visibility.

• Stronger resilience against evolving attack vectors.

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Building a Zero Trust Strategy That Lasts

1. Start with Identity

Identity is the foundation of Zero Trust. Centralise authentication with solutions like Azure AD, Okta, or Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud IAM, integrated with MFA and adaptive risk policies.

Ensure every access request is context-aware factoring in device health, geolocation, and behaviour. This protects both users and clients without slowing down transactions.

2. Map Your Data Flow

Financial organisations often have siloed data across CRM, core banking, and analytics systems. Map where data lives, who accesses it, and how it moves. You can’t protect what you can’t see.

Synapse helps clients visualise this through Adaptive Cloud assessments, pinpointing exposure points across hybrid environments.

3. Secure the Endpoints

Workstations, mobile devices, and even teller systems must be continuously monitored. Endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools powered by automation detect threats before they cause damage.

Synapse’s Cyber Protection-as-a-Service combines threat detection, automated remediation, and immutable backup — enabling rapid recovery from ransomware or insider attacks.

4. Apply Policy Consistency Across Cloud & On-Prem

Zero Trust fails when policies are fragmented. Use centralised policy engines to apply consistent authentication and data protection rules across AWS, Azure, and on-prem environments.

This “adaptive” model ensures policies evolve with user behaviour and regulatory changes — a hallmark of Synapse’s Adaptive Cloud approach.

5. Build in Recovery from the Start

Resilience isn’t a bolt-on — it’s a core design principle. Implement immutable backup, disaster recovery, and automated failover to minimise downtime and data loss.

Synapse’s Backup-as-a-Service and Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service give finance organisations predictable recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs), ensuring operations never miss a beat.

Measuring Success

A lasting Zero Trust strategy isn’t a one-time project it’s an evolving maturity model.

Key metrics to track:

• Mean time to detect/respond (MTTD/MTTR)

• MFA adoption rate

• Data exfiltration attempts blocked

• Compliance posture (via frameworks like NIST CSF or CIS)

• Backup and recovery test success rates

Synapse works alongside your internal teams to measure, benchmark, and refine turning Zero Trust from a framework into a living, adaptive process.

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The Synapse Perspective

We believe technology should empower, not impede. That your infrastructure should be as dependable as gravity, and your data as secure as a vault.

Our role isn’t to sell security tools. It’s to engineer confidence helping finance leaders protect what matters while enabling the agility to innovate.

That’s why our Adaptive Cloud and Cyber Protection services are built on Zero Trust principles: continuous verification, intelligent automation, and resilience-by-design.

Zero Trust isn’t a finish line. It’s a mindset. And with Synapse, it’s one that endures.

Ready to modernise your data security strategy?

Speak to our experts about building a Zero Trust framework that evolves with your business.

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