The Gap Between How Firms Operate and How They’re Secured

In practice, we see this play out all the time – cybersecurity challenges don’t usually start with sophisticated attacks. They start with a more fundamental issue: the way the business operates has changed, but the way it’s protected often hasn’t.

Your advisors are working remotely – from home offices, client sites, and while traveling. At the same time, your core systems – from Microsoft 365 to portfolio management platforms and CRM tools – now live in the cloud or across third-party environments.

Yet security is still often designed around a central office model, where access is granted once a user connects to the network.

Why the Traditional Model Falls Short

This tends to create friction for users – and more exposure than most firms realize. VPN-based access can introduce inconsistent performance, but more importantly, it creates a broad level of trust once a connection is established. If credentials are compromised, that access can extend far beyond what that user actually needs – often without you realizing it right away.

That mismatch between how the firm operates and how it’s secured is where things start to break down.

Today’s Threat Landscape Is Identity-Driven

Most attacks affecting financial services firms today are not the result of attackers breaking through a firewall. Instead, they rely on valid credentials – obtained through phishing, device compromise, or other methods – to gain access as legitimate users.

Once inside, traditional network-based security has limited ability to restrict movement or detect misuse quickly.

For RIAs, family offices, and financial planning firms, this shows up in real, practical ways.

A single compromised account can expose your client data and internal systems faster than most teams expect. And because many firms still rely on fragmented tools and manual processes, detection and response timelines can lag behind what regulators and clients expect.

In this environment, security needs to be tied to identity and context – not just network location.

How SASE Aligns Security with the Way Firms Work

SASE shifts security away from the network and toward the user. At its core, this is an identity-based security model, often aligned with zero trust principles.

Instead of routing users through a VPN and granting broad access, it connects users directly to the applications they’re authorized to use, with identity and device context continuously verified.

From Network Access to Application Access

This model limits lateral movement and reduces the impact of compromised credentials.

For wealth management firms, this aligns more closely with how teams operate today.

Security follows the user across remote locations and cloud platforms, allowing firms to apply consistent controls without relying on perimeter-based infrastructure or introducing unnecessary friction.