How Altum Group Fights Identity Threats

“We’ve faced a growing wave of threats. Not just from financially motivated actors but increasingly from activist groups, particularly in the wake of the Ukraine war, with a significant volume of malicious activity originating from Russia. Having seen a sharp rise in impersonation attacks, identity management has become a top priority.” — William Wilson, Head of Threat Protection & Governance at Altum Group

When attackers can impersonate your CEO, phish your clients via mail and flood your network with threats traced back to worldwide locations, “business as usual” becomes high-stakes survival.

At Altum Group, the cybersecurity pressure is relentless, from financially motivated hackers to activist groups exploiting global instability. These are the type of challenges I explored with William Wilson, Head of Threat Protection & Governance at Altum Group when he joined me on our stand at InfoSecurity Europe.

Diving into real-world cybersecurity challenges, our fireside chat took an unfiltered look at the current threat landscape, what it takes to keep data secure, how a Microsoft-first approach is benefiting Altum and how the company is balancing insider risk and the advances of AI.

Watch the full 30-minute conversation I had with William. It’s packed with real-world insights and unfiltered takes on Microsoft security, identity threats and why every business needs to rethink AI risk.

The New Battleground: Fighting Identity Threats Outside Your Network

With its global headquarters based in Jersey, Altum Group is a professional financial services business with  200 people located across six offices. Working across fund administration, corporate and family office solutions, high volumes of data are transacted between intermediaries and clients, meaning email and data is one of Altum’s biggest areas for risk exposure.

Identity protection is a top priority, however as attackers increasingly become more sophisticated, for example targeting users via their personal email addresses such as Gmail and Yahoo to try and bypass internal defences, the challenge becomes more complex. Security teams often lose visibility and control once these threats move beyond corporate boundaries. While building a strong security culture through training and employee education is essential, human error remains a risk. The critical question for Altum Group then becomes; do we have the right systems in place to detect, contain and minimise the impact of these attacks when they occur? Can we trust that we’re protected?

Why Altum Group Went All-In on Microsoft

Leaning on Softwerx to maximise a Microsoft-first approach, Altum was able to deploy a cloud-first strategy through Microsoft Azure and M365 E5. This enabled scalable, flexible growth allowing the business to mature efficiently by activating E5 capabilities as needed, without repeatedly seeking board approval for each change or expansion.

“But isn’t a Microsoft-first approach putting all your eggs in one basket?” I asked.

“If Microsoft is having a bad day, then we’re probably all having a bad day, whether we’ve got our eggs in one basket or not,” replied William.

Following a $20 billion commitment from Microsoft we have seen the significant improvement and leader in numerous areas to accelerate improved cybersecurity outcomes for all its customers, and Altum Group wants to be a part of that.

“We have access to enterprise-grade toolsets that will allow us to protect our entire estate. We’ve got brand recognition and trust in Microsoft as a Gartner Magic Quadrant organisation and we have Softwerx as an extension of our internal Technology team, helping us to make sense of our Microsoft security investments and driving operational efficiency and security resilience.”

Don’t miss this insightful exploration into how Altum Group and Softwerx are working together to unlock the power of Microsoft Security tools to boost resilience and propel business growth. Watch the full 30-minute video here.