Challenge
A financial services company needed to protect sensitive customer data and meet regulatory compliance requirements for its website. The site lacked structured access controls – multiple staff members could make changes directly to the live site without any review or testing.
Changes were going live without being vetted first, increasing the risk of data exposure and unplanned downtime. For a company handling financial data, this level of exposure was a liability that needed to be addressed.
Solution
84EM implemented a security and maintenance program built around strict access controls and a clear separation between testing and the live site. All changes are now reviewed and verified in a test environment before they reach the public-facing site.
The live site was locked down so that no one can modify it directly – the ability to install or change anything on the live site was disabled entirely, with access limited to two authorized administrators. Updates flow to the live site on a controlled schedule only after passing review.
84EM also established ongoing monitoring with uptime checks every sixty seconds, login tracking, and daily off-site backups, giving the team continuous visibility and a recovery plan for any scenario.
Key Capabilities
- Strict access control limiting live site login to two authorized administrators, with all modification capabilities disabled and mandatory two-factor authentication across all accounts.
- Controlled change process that ensures all updates are tested and verified before reaching the live site, with scheduled releases on a predictable cadence.
- Continuous monitoring including sixty-second uptime checks with instant alerts, login tracking, and regular security scans that surface issues before they affect visitors.
- Managed maintenance program with regular update cycles applied in a test environment first, plus daily off-site backups for disaster recovery.
Results
The platform achieved 100% uptime over the past 12 months, a direct result of the controlled change process that prevents untested updates from reaching the live site.
The access lockdown dramatically reduced risk. The site went from a situation where multiple staff members could make changes at will to one where only two authorized administrators can log in – and even they cannot modify the site directly. This eliminated the most common sources of both accidental breakage and unauthorized changes.
The controlled change process transformed how the team operates. Updates that previously went directly to the live site without review now follow a clear path through testing, verification, and scheduled release. The unplanned downtime that had resulted from untested changes was eliminated entirely.
Comprehensive monitoring and logging gave the organization proactive visibility it had never had before. Login activity, configuration changes, and content edits are all tracked with full context, providing the audit trail needed for both regulatory compliance and incident investigation.
