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• Managed Branch Connectivity (WAN)
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• Internet Connectivity
  with Security
• Remote Employee
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Home > Products & Services > Internet Connectivity with Security

Internet Connectivity with Security

The Challenge

Bandwidth intense Internet access has become mission critical for banking operations due to increased internal use of Web-based banking applications and VPN connections to external service providers. Still, most banks have several single points of circuit failure throughout the WAN network. This may conflict with regulatory FFIEC guidelines for DR (Disaster Recovery) and BC (Business Continuity), since disrupted Internet access may hamper your ability to serve your customers.

Many banks lack the tools to monitor existing Internet bandwidth utilization by branch. Without visibility into the network, it's challenging to identify bottlenecks and resolve issues. Problems may cause slowdowns in the applications used by customer support staff and tellers.

Firewalls and IDSs are critical components to prevent security breaches to your network. These security components require upfront investment in hardware and costly ongoing service fees.

Unfortunately, banks can not entirely rely on their IT auditor to find security breaches in their network. It's up the each bank to minimize their security exposure to the Internet by using encryption, Firewall and IDS at each branch that is connected to a public network (cable, DSL, Metro Ethernet etc). Public network circuits therefore drives up cost and the external threats (the "front line") from the Internet is basically at your doorstep at each branch.

The BITS Solution

BITS Internet access and security protection is provided for customers who are using our foundation service (Managed branch to branch MPLS connectivity). Furthermore, your Internet bandwidth is restricted only by the size of the MPLS circuit at your branches, since the traffic is transported directly from each branch through the MPLS cloud to one of the two BITS data centers.

Our Customers Don't Need:

• Internet hardware for any location
  How? No separate network connectivity hardware components are required at the customer locations except the main router for MPLS network circuit connectivity.
• Separate or Channelized Internet circuit(s) for any location(s)
  How? Internet traffic will flow through the existing MPLS network, and pass through any of the two BITS data centers that are both connected to the Internet.
• Firewall & IDS at any branch/location
  How? BITS host and manage centralized Firewalls and IDSs at both our data centers for complete hardware redundancy. No Firewall or IDS is required at any of the customer sites, since each branch is connected to a private and encrypted IP VPN MPLS network. BITS push the "front line" for exposure to Internet threats from the banks' doorsteps, back to the BITS data centers. To date, not a single IT audited BITS customer has had a single finding or remark on their Internet security.
• Having to deal with an ISP who is not specialized in the needs of community banks
  How? BITS will act as the ISP for our community bank customers. Upon request, we provide our customers with all necessary security reports for banking related IT audit preparation purposes. We understand your needs.

No service fees are charged for our centralized Firewall and IDS Services located at both our redundant data centers.

BITS provides 24-hour network monitoring of all customer Internet traffic. The tools are provided by SecureWorks, a best in class network protection supplier.

SecureWorks is one of the industry's leading players, with almost 2,000 community bank customers.

Their products have been tailored specifically for community banks. As such, customers get access to detailed security reports.