Blue Ridge Bank Accelerates Identity Governance by Cutting Access Review Efforts in Half
The Challenges
Like all US financial services companies, Blue Ridge Bank, founded over 100 years ago in Virginia, is subject to an increasingly long list of regulatory obligations. The information security team sought to improve the accuracy of user access reviews, which, like in many organizations, had been performed manually to achieve the required compliance and satisfy auditors.
Additionally, Blue Ridge knew they could improve their overall security posture and reduce risk by gaining increased visibility into user access across the organization to establish a more consistent access baseline.
Read more below about how Blue Ridge Bank’s information security team successfully earned time back for their team, while simultaneously automating a manual process and improving their overall security posture.
Automation Brings Consistent Compliance Baseline for Access Reviews and Identity Security with Less Effort
Prior to implementing Zilla, the Blue Ridge Bank team felt the burden of performing manual user access reviews with spreadsheets. “When I was brought on board, manual user access reviews using spreadsheets consumed much of my time, leaving little bandwidth for other responsibilities. We wanted a consistent format with results we could pull any time for auditors,” explained Chase West, Information Security Analyst at Blue Ridge Bank.
The pains associated with manual user access processes were felt across the business: IT didn’t have a single pane of glass in which to view user access reports, and application owners were required to step away from their day jobs to complete time-consuming review tasks. As the lead Analyst in charge of user access reviews, corralling the many stakeholders across the bank was a tedious task. Even after selecting Zilla, a choice largely based on Zilla’s simple and intuitive user interface, he wasn’t sure if he was out of the woods. After all, implementing an IGA solution can be an arduous process in itself.
As part of the implementation, the information security team had to work with application owners for over 150 applications to extract user lists, map permissions, and set up review campaigns. The team found that Zilla’s extensive set of pre-built, no-code integrations and other capabilities made this process easier and faster than expected. Chase learned early on the importance of communication and coordination with application owners, which helped forge a partnership that contributed to the success of the new solution and process.
Implementing Zilla was much easier than other IAM/IGA platforms. The deployment required no programming or complicated installations and allowed us to onboard our applications much faster and easier than other tools.”
Ron BuchananCISO
Modern IGA Helps Teams Across the Organization
It was important to the Bank to choose a solution with a great user experience for both implementing and operating the solution. Since application owners and reviewers also shared the pain associated with manual, spreadsheet-based access reviews, they also stood to benefit from an automated solution. However, a steep onboarding or user learning curve wouldn’t cut it for these busy stakeholders.
Despite being immediately impressed by Zilla’s simplicity, Blue Ridge Bank CISO Ron Buchanan was pleased by how well Zilla lived up to the expectations established by the team during their evaluation process.
We wanted a consistent format with results we could pull any time for auditors”
Chase WestInformation Security Analyst
Zilla’s Robust Integration Capabilities Enable the Bank’s Evolution and Growth
In addition to its ease of use across stakeholders, robust API integration makes Zilla appealing as a technology that will grow with the bank. For Chase West, using Zilla is a means of future-proofing the increasingly strategic identity and access management strategy. With 90% of their 150+ applications integrated within months of initial project kickoff, and multiple means to integrate new apps into Zilla, such as via API, CSV or with Zilla Universal Sync™, Chase is confident about future growth.
Depending on the complexity of the user list, it can take minutes to onboard an application for the first time. Anything without an API or easily accessible CSV, we know we have Zilla’s Universal Sync to fill the gaps.”
Chase WestInformation Security Analyst
Accelerating Identity Governance Initiatives Going Forward
With a much more operationally efficient user access review process in place, the Blue Ridge Bank information security team is able to invest time in other strategic security projects, while simultaneously improving identity visibility and compliance accuracy. The team’s newfound comprehensive visibility into entitlements also enables continuous improvement of the bank’s identity security posture. “Implementing Zilla allowed us to quickly move away from manual use of spreadsheets to a scalable, uniform, and timely process. We now have a more accurate view of user access and identity-related data quality issues and anomalies,” summarized CISO Ron Buchanan. Ron’s team has also seen an increase in both the engagement and the satisfaction of application owners across the business. Zilla makes their lives easier too – not just because they are freed from spreadsheets, but because they also appreciate the unified view into entitlements and users. The same goes for IT; they use Zilla to gain comprehensive visibility into user entitlements across the organization, and to expedite revocation and deprovisioning processes. Blue Ridge Bank and Zilla look forward to a continued partnership as the bank continues to advance their identity governance initiatives.
About Blue Ridge Bank
Blue Ridge Bank is a leading community bank that supports families and businesses through a wide range of financial services including retail and commercial banking, insurance, card payments, wholesale and retail mortgage lending, and government-guaranteed lending. The bank also provides investment and wealth management services and management services for personal and corporate trusts, including estate planning and trust administration.
Visit www.mybrb.bank to learn more.
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