Many of our clients (and prospective clients) are large firms in the fintech, health tech, and eCommerce sector who have existing relationships with well-established security providers with hundreds of staff.

Although we are smaller and our brand name is less established, there are still plenty of reasons to make the switch from your current security provider to Forward Security.

In this post, we will discuss those reasons.

1. We are substantially cheaper without outsourcing

Large firms are expensive. We offer the same quality (or better) at a fraction of the cost. Why pay more? We are based in North America (Vancouver, Toronto, & Austin, TX), we don’t outsource to 3rd party offshore firms.

2. We have over 100 years of experience

We have over 100 years of combined experience within the Fintech /FinServe, health tech, and eCommerce sectors and have worked with some large firms such as HSBC, BMO, People’s Trust, Neo Financial, MEC, and more.

3. We are specialists, not generalists

We are specialists, not generalists. Our staff are experts with the many protocols, standards, and systems specific to the financial industry such as: PCI, PSD 2, OSFI, FIPS, SOC 2, FINRA, GLBA, ACH, SWIFT, CHIPS, Fedwire, Open Banking, HIPAA, HITECH, and more.

4. We are all software developers

All our staff (aka the “A-Team”) are former software developers. We have actually built software so we understand code on a fundamental level. This means we can often find and remediate issues such sooner than someone without a software development background.

5. We go beyond pentesting

Our comprehensive 4-stage Application Security Risk Assessment goes beyond pentesting. Following OWASP ASVS, we start with a thorough discovery stage, followed by threat modeling, then pentesting, and then finalization where we deliver the outcomes.

6. We use automated and manual tests

We use both automated and manual tests to ensure nothing gets missed. We even have our own propriety tool called Eureka DevSecOps Platform, which easily integrates multiple scanners, reduces false positives, and normalizes and correlates the reports. This saves you a lot of time, cost, and stress.

7. We offer a different perspective

When it comes to security, it’s often good to have another set of eyes. This can potentially reveal security vulnerabilities that were previously missed.

8. We use a risk-based approach

We use a risk-based approach, which considers the impact and likelihood of an attack. Many other providers don’t do this so you have no idea what issues to prioritize.

9. We are hands-on

Working with large firms often reduces the quality of care when it comes to client relations. To them, you may just be another client. But for us, we are largely referral-based, so it’s very important for us to deliver our best.

10. We reduce your staffing costs

We also offer security training, and strongly endorse a “security champion” methodology. Our goal is to promote security awareness and education among your internal team so that you can handle the low-hanging fruit, which accounts for roughly 80% of the security issues. We can support you for the other 20% and act as your go-to security SME so that you can keep your staffing costs down.

How Mature is Your DevSecOps?