Continuous Session Governance for Banking and Financial Services
Keystrike is a continuous remote access governance platform that validates every privileged action in banking environments in real time — blocking unauthorised commands before they execute, and producing tamper-evident audit records for PCI DSS, FFIEC, DORA, and NYDFS compliance. Keystrike completes your existing security stack.
Your IAM grants access. Your SIEM logs events. Keystrike governs the live session.
The Governance Gap Between Access Granted and Access Governed Costs Financial Institutions Millions
MFA, IAM, and EDR protect the login. They don't govern what happens inside the session.
Regulatory Compliance
PCI DSS, FFIEC, NYDFS, and DORA require demonstrable controls over privileged access — not just access logs. Keystrike provides continuous, session-level evidence that enforcement was active throughout every session.
- • Continuous governance and verification requirements
- • Audit trail obligations
- • Real-time reporting demands
- • DORA digital operational resilience obligations
Fraud Prevention
Credential stuffing, account takeover, and session hijacking bypass MFA entirely. Keystrike blocks unauthorised commands before they execute — protecting payment rails and customer data in real time.
- • Credential stuffing attacks
- • Account takeover attempts
- • Insider session abuse — blocked at the command level
Third-Party Access
Vendors, partners, and remote employees require privileged access to operate. Keystrike governs every third-party session without disrupting workflows or requiring additional authentication steps.
- • Vendor access management
- • Remote work security
- • Cross-border operations
Three Attack Paths That Bypass Your Existing Financial Security Stack
Payment Rail Hijacking
Attackers no longer need to break into banking systems — they operate inside legitimate remote sessions. Pass-the-hash attacks and Kerberos delegation abuse allow adversaries to hijack SWIFT and ACH payment sessions using valid credentials, injecting fraudulent transactions after authentication has already succeeded. MFA confirms the login. It does not verify what happens to the session once access is granted.
Keystrike closes this gap by continuously validating that every command inside the session originates from verified physical input on an approved device — blocking injected activity before funds move.
Incident: A ransomware attack on an Indian payment processor exploited RDP sessions to compromise a partner system, blocking 300 rural banks from accessing funds. Keystrike blocks RDP input from unconfigured workstations and alerts administrators in real time — regardless of credential validity.
Credential Theft and Data Exfiltration
Attackers harvest remote access tokens to enter sensitive systems as legitimate users — accessing customer PII, internal data, and downstream infrastructure without triggering anomaly alerts. Because the session appears authorised, detection tools have no signal to act on.
Keystrike closes this gap by requiring that every command be cryptographically attested to physical keystrokes and mouse clicks on an approved workstation. Stolen credentials alone cannot generate valid attestation — lateral movement is blocked at the command level.
Incident: In the Santander breach affecting an estimated 30 million customers, attackers used stolen login credentials to remotely access a data warehouse and move laterally across systems. With Keystrike, stolen credentials cannot be reused remotely without physical access to an authorised workstation.
Social Engineering and Persistent Session Abuse
After gaining an initial foothold through social engineering, attackers blend into legitimate session activity — masquerading as the target user, using native tools, and maintaining persistent access for days or weeks. These attacks are cheap to mount and specifically designed to evade pattern-based detection models.
Keystrike closes this gap by introducing a definitive, binary signal: physical human input. Commands either originate from verified physical interaction on an approved device — or they do not. There is no statistical baseline to game.
Incident: In the OCC breach (2023–2025), attackers compromised an administrator account and lurked undetected for over a year, accessing 150,000+ emails from senior staff. The breach was not discovered until February 2025. Keystrike limits attacker exposure to minutes — not months.
Why Firewalls, MFA, and SIEM Cannot Secure Privileged Sessions in Financial Environments
| Security Tool | What It Protects | Post-Authentication Gap |
|---|---|---|
| Firewalls / IAM / MFA | Grants access — perimeter and identity controls | Session activity after access is granted |
| SIEM — Security Information and Event Management | Logs events — centralised alerts and compliance reporting | Reactive — alerts after damage is done |
| NDR — Network Detection and Response | Network traffic anomalies and lateral movement | Blind to encrypted or legitimate-looking session traffic |
| EDR — Endpoint Detection and Response | Malware detection and endpoint telemetry | Blind to valid credential theft and session misuse |
| Keystrike | Governs the live session — every command in every privileged session | None. Unauthorised commands blocked before execution. |
Keystrike does not record keystrokes, credentials, or personally identifiable information. Session verification is cryptographic — not pattern-based — eliminating false positives and privacy exposure.
Continuous Session Governance for FFIEC, PCI DSS, NYDFS, and GLBA Requirements
Every privileged session produces continuous, tamper-evident audit records that satisfy financial services regulatory requirements as a direct output of governance — not as a separate compliance process.
Keystrike supports compliance with FFIEC, OCC, GLBA, PCI DSS, NYDFS (23 NYCRR Part 500), California DFPI/CCPA, and other banking cybersecurity mandates — through robust access controls, continuous authentication, and ongoing verification of every remote action.
DORA Compliance for Financial Institutions
The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) requires EU financial institutions to maintain robust ICT risk management and third-party oversight. Keystrike supports DORA compliance through continuous session governance (Article 9), tamper-evident session records (Article 11), governed third-party vendor sessions (Article 15), and verifiable enforcement for operational resilience testing (Article 26).
Built for How Banking Security Teams Actually Work
For CISOs
Know that every privileged session in your banking environment is deterministically controlled. Keystrike enforces session policy in real time with zero false positives — provable assurance that authorised users operate within policy and unauthorised commands never execute.
For Compliance Officers
Generate tamper-evident audit records for every governed session — automatically satisfying FFIEC, PCI DSS, DORA, NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500, and GLBA requirements. Compliance becomes a direct output of governance, not a separate evidence-gathering exercise.
For Security Operations
Map every remote access protocol across your banking environment in real time. The Keystrike SEE module shows which sessions are governed, which protocols are active, and where governance gaps remain — across RDP, SSH, PowerShell Remoting, WinRM, WMI, and SMB.
Deterministic Session Enforcement — Not Probabilistic Detection
Workstation Agent
A lightweight agent on the user's device recognises legitimate physical keystrokes and mouse clicks, and submits cryptographic attestations confirming their legitimacy to the central Keystrike service.
Server-Side Terminator
A second lightweight agent on the destination server withholds all input until it receives proof of legitimacy. Attested input is processed. Unattested input — from scripts, injected commands, or compromised sessions — is blocked and an alert is generated in real time.
Live Visibility
The Keystrike SEE module maps all remote protocols across your environment — RDP, SSH, PowerShell Remoting, WinRM, WMI, SMB, and more — surfacing which sessions are governed and where policy gaps remain.
Continuous Audit Records
Every governed session automatically produces tamper-evident, timestamped audit records that satisfy FFIEC, PCI DSS, DORA, and NYDFS requirements. Compliance is a direct output of governance — not a separate evidence-gathering process.
Keystrike completes your existing security stack — integrating with MFA, IAM, SIEM, and EDR infrastructure. No rip-and-replace. No workflow changes for authorised users.
Keystrike for Banking — Common Questions
Does Keystrike help with PCI DSS 4.0 compliance?
How does Keystrike address DORA requirements for banking?
Does Keystrike record or store keystrokes?
How is Keystrike different from SIEM for banking security?
Does Keystrike work with existing banking security infrastructure?
What remote access protocols does Keystrike govern?
Can Keystrike protect SWIFT and ACH payment systems?
What is the false positive rate?
Close the Post-Authentication Gap Before Your Next Audit or Incident
Session hijacking, credential abuse, and payment rail fraud all exploit the same blind spot: the gap between access granted and access governed. Keystrike makes every privileged session in your environment visible, verifiable, and policy-controlled — without replacing your existing stack.
Your IAM grants access. Your SIEM logs events. Keystrike governs the live session.