The most heavily regulated industry in cybersecurity
Financial services operates under overlapping regulatory regimes that each require documented security controls, penetration testing, and formal incident response. Failure to meet any single one. GLBA, NYDFS, PCI DSS, SEC disclosure. Creates both financial and reputational exposure. Regulators coordinate. A breach triggers notification obligations to multiple agencies simultaneously.
Valtik works with banks, credit unions, insurance carriers, wealth managers, registered investment advisers, and fintech startups. Our engagements produce documentation that maps directly to regulator expectations. Because "we have security" does not satisfy any regulator in 2026.
Who we work with
Community banks and regional banks
State-chartered banks, national banks, community banks with $100M to $10B in assets. Our engagements cover online banking platforms, mobile banking apps, core banking integrations, wire fraud prevention, and the technical controls that insurance carriers now require for renewal.
Credit unions
NCUA-regulated credit unions face similar requirements to banks with additional NCUA-specific expectations. Our pentests produce reports acceptable to NCUA examiners and align with the ACET (Automated Cybersecurity Examination Tool) framework.
Insurance carriers and MGAs
Property and casualty, life, health, specialty lines. Insurance companies face state insurance department requirements (Connecticut Insurance Data Security Law, NY DFS, NAIC Model Law-derived state laws). We run comprehensive security assessments that satisfy multiple state regulators from a single engagement.
Registered investment advisers and wealth managers
SEC-registered RIAs face SEC Regulation S-P (Safeguards Rule), state-registered RIAs face NASAA Model Rule. Our engagements align with both plus client-driven security questionnaires from institutional investors and retirement plan sponsors.
Fintech and payments companies
Payment facilitators, neo-banks, BNPL platforms, embedded finance providers, crypto exchanges, lending platforms. Fintech faces PCI DSS (if card processing), SOC 2 (for B2B distribution), state money transmitter licensing requirements, and the specific risks of rapid product development on regulated infrastructure.
Public financial services companies
SEC-reporting companies face the Item 1.05 Form 8-K 4-business-day material incident disclosure requirement. We help design the incident classification process, materiality determination workflow, and disclosure-ready documentation to avoid both over-disclosure and under-disclosure.
Services for financial services clients
- PCI DSS 4.0 Penetration Testing. Card-handling environments
- SOC 2 Readiness. For fintech SaaS distributing to enterprises
- NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500 annual pentest + risk assessment
- GLBA Safeguards Rule penetration testing
- State insurance department cyber examinations
- Incident response retainer and post-breach assessment
- Third-party risk assessment for vendor due diligence
- Cyber insurance application support and renewal readiness
The 2026 financial services threat landscape
Business email compromise
BEC losses hit $2.9 billion in 2024 per the FBI IC3. Financial services firms are primary targets because the attackers can often convert access to immediate wire fraud. Controls: mandatory callback on wire authorizations, pre-shared code words, executive protection programs against voice cloning.
Account takeover fraud
Credential stuffing, SIM swap, session hijacking, and MFA bypass attacks continue to drive online banking fraud. Phishing-resistant MFA (FIDO2, passkeys) is the defensive move most financial firms still have not fully deployed.
Third-party risk
Core banking vendors, payment processors, cloud providers, and fintech partners are the attack surface external to your own perimeter. Every major 2024-2025 financial services breach had a third-party component. Vendor risk management is no longer a compliance checkbox. It is a top-three root cause category.
Insider threat and compromised credentials
IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024 identified compromised credentials as the most common initial attack vector at 19% of breaches. Financial services firms need continuous identity monitoring, strong session management, and the ability to detect anomalous behavior from authenticated users.