Altius IT delivers independent IT security audits for financial institutions, banks, insurance companies, law firms, and media organizations across New York City. Our auditors understand the regulatory intensity of the NY financial services market, including NY DFS cybersecurity requirements, SOX controls, PCI-DSS, and GLBA obligations.
New York's financial services industry operates under the most stringent cybersecurity regulatory regime in the United States. The NY Department of Financial Services 23 NYCRR 500 requires covered entities to maintain comprehensive cybersecurity programs with annual penetration testing and biannual vulnerability assessments. Our IT security audit is designed to address the regulatory depth and operational complexity of New York's financial, legal, and media sectors.
We audit server configurations and endpoint hardening against CIS and NIST benchmarks with specific attention to the controls required by NY DFS and federal financial regulators. For New York financial institutions running trading platforms, core banking systems, and risk management applications, we verify that server-level security controls meet the heightened standards expected of organizations handling financial data and market-sensitive information.
Our auditors evaluate patch management lifecycles with particular focus on the timelines mandated by financial regulators. NY DFS requires that organizations maintain a process to promptly address vulnerabilities, and federal examiners routinely cite patch management failures. We assess your patching cadence, compensating controls for deferred patches, and the governance process for tracking and escalating unresolved vulnerabilities.
We assess encryption configurations, access control models, audit logging completeness, and data masking controls across your database environment. New York's banks, broker-dealers, and insurance companies store some of the most sensitive financial data in the world. Our database security review verifies that controls align with GLBA Safeguards Rule requirements, SOX Section 404 internal controls, and the encryption standards specified in NY DFS 500.15.
Our audit covers AWS, Azure, and GCP deployments, evaluating IAM policies, encryption configurations, network segmentation, storage access controls, and logging infrastructure. New York financial institutions increasingly use cloud services for non-core functions, analytics, and disaster recovery, and regulators expect the same level of control over cloud environments as on-premise data centers, including demonstrated oversight of cloud service provider risk.
We perform a thorough review of your Microsoft 365 security posture, including Entra ID configuration, conditional access policies, MFA enforcement, Defender for Office 365 settings, DLP policies, SharePoint sharing controls, and audit log retention. For law firms handling privileged communications and financial institutions sharing market-sensitive analysis through M365, email and document security misconfigurations create material regulatory and litigation risk.
We verify backup procedures, test restoration capabilities, and validate offsite and cloud backup configurations. NY DFS and federal banking regulators require documented business continuity and disaster recovery plans with regular testing. Our audit validates not only that backups exist, but that recovery time objectives are achievable and have been tested under realistic failure scenarios.
Our audit evaluates MFA implementation, privileged access management, role-based access controls, and identity lifecycle governance. NY DFS 500.12 specifically requires MFA for remote access and privilege escalation. We assess whether your access control architecture satisfies regulatory requirements and actually enforces the principle of least privilege across production systems, administrative consoles, and third-party vendor access.
We review EDR deployment, antivirus configurations, device management policies, and mobile security controls. New York's financial services workforce is highly mobile, moving between trading floors, corporate offices, client sites, and home offices. Endpoint protection must account for this mobility while maintaining the security monitoring and data loss prevention controls that regulators require.
We evaluate change management, incident response preparedness, security awareness training, and vendor risk management. NY DFS requires a written incident response plan and a designated Chief Information Security Officer. For organizations subject to SEC cybersecurity disclosure rules and SOX internal controls over financial reporting, operational security maturity directly impacts regulatory examination outcomes and board-level risk reporting. Learn more about our cybersecurity audit.
New York organizations face the most demanding cybersecurity regulatory environment in the country. Altius IT provides the independent, CISA-certified audit expertise that financial institutions, law firms, and media companies need to satisfy regulators and protect critical assets.
No vendor ties. Recommendations aligned solely with your risk tolerance and business goals.
Led by experts with a Ph.D. in Computer Science, CISA certification, and industry leadership experience.
Thorough 360-degree review covering your technology, people, and processes.
Every engagement includes follow-up support to ensure vulnerabilities are properly mitigated.
New York City is the financial capital of the world and the most heavily regulated market for cybersecurity in the United States. The NY Department of Financial Services Cybersecurity Regulation (23 NYCRR 500) imposes prescriptive requirements on banks, insurance companies, and licensed financial services firms including mandatory annual penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, incident response planning, and CISO designation. Federal regulators including the SEC, OCC, and FDIC layer additional examination expectations on top of state requirements. Our cybersecurity audit helps New York organizations demonstrate compliance across this complex regulatory landscape.
Wall Street banks and broker-dealers must comply with SOX internal controls, GLBA safeguards, and SEC cybersecurity disclosure requirements. Insurance companies face NY DFS examination cycles and NAIC model law requirements. Law firms handling M&A transactions and litigation materials for financial clients are increasingly subject to their clients' vendor risk management programs and must demonstrate adequate security controls. Media and publishing organizations in Manhattan manage valuable intellectual property and subscriber data requiring protection under state privacy laws. Altius IT's compliance audit addresses each of these frameworks with regulatory-specific expertise.
An independent IT security audit from Altius IT gives New York organizations the documented evidence of security program effectiveness that regulators, examiners, and clients demand. Our Auditor Opinion Letter provides CISA-certified attestation of your security controls, supporting regulatory examination responses, client due diligence requests, and board-level risk reporting. Learn more about our team and methodology.
Altius IT serves organizations throughout the New York metropolitan area including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, Jersey City, Hoboken, Stamford, and White Plains. We also serve organizations in Long Island, Westchester County, and northern New Jersey. Our IT security audits are conducted both remotely and on-site, and we provide network security audits for firms with trading floors, data centers, and offices distributed across the tri-state area.