How To Secure Remote Vendor Access in Finance

Financial institutions rely heavily on third-party vendors like payment processors, banking platform providers and fintech integrations to maintain operational efficiency. In fact, according to Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, 30% of data breaches involved a third party, including vendors with direct remote access to financial systems. As environments become more distributed and accommodate remote work, managing vendor access has become a modern security challenge. Traditional methods like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and shared credentials often grant broad access to critical systems, significantly expanding the attack surface. Vendors typically require access to these systems, but without proper controls, this access can expose organizations to credential theft, insider threats and compliance violations. Securing remote vendor access in financial services requires enforcing least-privilege access, eliminating standing access and adopting a zero-trust approach for every session.

Continue reading to learn eight ways to secure remote vendor access and how Keeper^® can help.

1. Enforce least-privilege access

Vendors should have access only to the systems and data they need to complete their tasks. Granting broad vendor access creates unnecessary security risks and increases the potential impact of a data breach. For example, a core banking vendor performing maintenance on a loan processing system does not need access to unrelated customer records or trading platforms. Restricting vendor access to only the necessary systems ensures that, if the vendor’s credentials are compromised, cybercriminals cannot move laterally across a network or access other sensitive data.

By enforcing least-privilege access, financial institutions can reduce the impact of compromised credentials and prevent privilege creep across critical systems. In financial environments where even limited access can expose vast amounts of sensitive customer data or transactional systems, enforcing least-privilege access is crucial.

2. Eliminate standing privileges with Just-in-Time (JIT) access

Security teams should never grant vendors persistent access to critical systems, sensitive data or trading infrastructure. Standing access creates ongoing risk because active credentials can be exploited long after a vendor’s work is complete. For example, if a vendor needs to troubleshoot a trading platform, they should be granted temporary Just-in-Time (JIT) access only for as long as it takes to complete the task. Once the issue is resolved, vendor access should be automatically revoked, ensuring no lingering permissions remain.

3. Reduce the risk of credential exposure

Employees and vendors should never share credentials, API keys or other secrets through email, messaging platforms or spreadsheets. In financial environments, exposed credentials can lead to unauthorized access, fraud or compromise of customer data. To reduce this risk, all credentials must be stored in an encrypted vault that enforces role-based access, logs all usage and brokers access without revealing the underlying credential to the user. For example, a vendor requiring temporary access to a financial database should connect through the vault using time-limited access, with the credential rotated automatically when the session ends to prevent misuse.

4. Require Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) should be enforced for all employee and vendor logins, especially privileged accounts. In financial environments, compromised credentials alone should never be enough to access payment platforms or customer databases. Without MFA, stolen credentials can give cybercriminals access to critical systems, increasing the risk of fraud and data breaches.

Financial institutions should also extend MFA to systems that don’t natively support it, including legacy core banking platforms and outdated trading systems that handle financial data. Applying MFA across both legacy and modern infrastructure helps strengthen security in complex hybrid environments and better protect vendor access points from unauthorized access.

5. Monitor and record all vendor sessions

Security teams must have full visibility into vendor activity by tracking which systems were accessed, when access occurred and what actions were taken. This level of oversight is essential in financial environments where vendors interact with critical systems like payment processing platforms and trading infrastructure. Real-time privileged session monitoring and recording provide this visibility by capturing vendor activity as it happens. This allows security teams to detect suspicious activity immediately, intervene when needed and maintain accountability. For example, session monitoring can reveal attempts to alter transaction logs or export sensitive financial data. Recording vendor sessions also supports compliance and audit requirements.

6. Prevent lateral movement across financial systems

If vendor credentials become compromised, cybercriminals can use them to access other systems and move laterally through the network. This type of lateral movement can escalate quickly, turning a minor breach into a major incident that affects customer financial data at scale. One of the biggest risks in financial environments is a cybercriminal moving from a vendor-accessible system to critical banking or payment processing infrastructure. To reduce the risk of lateral movement, financial institutions should limit vendor access to only the specific systems they need. Instead of granting vendors access to an entire network, security teams should grant vendors access through secure, session-based methods. Restricting access in this way helps contain threats and reduce opportunities for lateral movement.

7. Centralize access control

Without centralized access control, vendor access is often spread across several disconnected tools and systems, making it harder to enforce policies and monitor activity. Centralizing access management gives security teams better visibility into privileged activity, helps enforce least-privilege access and ensures vendor access is consistently controlled. This level of transparency is vital for meeting strict compliance standards like SOX, PCI DSS and GLBA, since auditors require proof that access controls are enforced and critical systems are protected. For financial institutions operating in the EU or serving European customers, centralized access control is also required under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which mandates documented oversight of third-party ICT providers’ access.

8. Establish a formal vendor offboarding process

Financial institutions must ensure that vendor access is immediately revoked once it is no longer necessary for projects or systems. Without a formal offboarding process, dormant vendor accounts and unused credentials can be useful to cybercriminals. An effective vendor offboarding process should include automatically revoking access, disabling or deleting vendor accounts, rotating any credentials the vendor had access to and reviewing audit trails to confirm no unauthorized activity occurred. For example, if a vendor completes a project involving access to customer databases or payment systems, their access should be revoked instantly, and all associated credentials should be rotated. This ensures that even if the vendor’s credentials become compromised or exposed, they cannot be used to access sensitive financial data.

How Keeper secures remote vendor access

Keeper secures remote vendor access by applying zero-trust security principles to every privileged session, meaning every access request is verified, no user is implicitly trusted and credentials are never visible to vendors at any point. With Keeper, credentials are securely stored in an encrypted vault and automatically rotated after each session, ensuring they are never exposed to vendors. For financial institutions, Keeper helps ensure that vendors can securely access critical systems like payment platforms and customer databases without introducing unnecessary security risks.

Grant time-limited access without exposing credentials

Keeper enforces JIT access, allowing vendors to connect to critical systems only when necessary and for a limited time. Sessions are launched directly from the Keeper Vault, and since vendors never see or handle the underlying credentials, this helps prevent credential theft and eliminates standing access.

Monitor and record every session in real time

All vendor activity is tracked through real-time session monitoring and recording, including keystroke logging and screen recording. Financial institutions should verify that session recording practices comply with applicable employment and privacy regulations in their operating jurisdictions before deployment. This feature provides full visibility into actions taken during a vendor session and can be integrated with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools for centralized monitoring. With KeeperAI, security teams can automatically analyze session activity as it occurs and identify suspicious behavior in real time. Session recordings also provide a complete evidence trail for post-incident forensic review.

Prevent lateral movement with zero-trust security

Keeper uses outbound-only gateway connections to provide secure remote access without requiring inbound firewall rules or direct network exposure. By restricting vendor access to certain resources and eliminating direct network access, Keeper helps prevent unauthorized users from moving laterally across financial systems. With KeeperDB, database access is further secured by allowing vendors to manage databases directly from their Keeper Vault in an isolated environment. This ensures credentials remain hidden, activity is fully recorded and vendors cannot create additional pathways for lateral movement.

Support compliance with detailed audit trails

Keeper generates detailed audit trails and session recordings that organizations can use as evidence to meet regulatory standards, including SOX, PCI DSS, GLBA and DORA. With automated reporting and full visibility into vendor access, financial institutions can demonstrate compliance, simplify auditing and ensure that granular access controls are consistently enforced.

Manage remote vendor access with Keeper

Securing remote vendor access is essential for modern financial institutions seeking to protect their critical systems, maintain customer trust and meet regulatory requirements. Vendor access must be carefully and continuously monitored and audited to prevent credential misuse and ensure compliance with strict frameworks like SOX, PCI DSS and GLBA.

A single compromised vendor account can trigger regulatory penalties, customer notification obligations and lasting reputational damage. Keeper provides banks and financial firms with a zero-trust Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution built to address modern security challenges. By combining zero-trust security with a zero-knowledge architecture, Keeper ensures that vendors never see or handle credentials, that every session is verified and that all activity is fully auditable.

Request a demo of KeeperPAM today to discover how to securely manage vendor access without jeopardizing security or compliance.