CASE STUDY

Peak Trust Selects Keeper toSecure Clients’ Private Financial Dataand Help Prevent Data Breaches© 2022 Keeper Security,REVInc. 7.18.22
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OVERVIEW
Peak Trust is an independent trust company with a mission to sustain,
elevate, and promote its customers’ legacies by helping them set up trustsin tax-favorable states such as Alaska or Nevada, as well as by providing
flexible and customized trust administration solutions.
The very nature of its business means that Peak Trust routinely storesand handles highly sensitive personal and financial data belonging to itsclients. “We guard this information like it’s the gold in the ground,” says
Donn Lassila, CFIRS, Chief Compliance/AML Officer. “Protecting ourclients’ privacy is our number one security priority, and ensuring that ouremployees’ passwords are secure is a major part of that.”
Additionally, as a finance company, Peak Trust must submit reports toregulators in the states of Nevada and Alaska documenting its IT security
procedures. The company abides by Federal Financial Institutions
Examination Council (FFIEC) standards and undergoes semi-annualinternal assessments. “Our goal is to not just meet but exceed FFIEC
standards whenever possible,” explains Lassila. “We want to continuously
demonstrate maturation and improvement in our password security, which
is a fundamental part of ultimately protecting our clients.”

We guard this information likeit’s the gold in the ground.
Protecting our clients’ privacy
is our number one security
priority, and ensuring that ouremployees’ passwords are
secure is a major part of that.

© 2022 Keeper Security, Inc.

2PROBLEM: PASSWORD ANARCHY
Prior to implementing Keeper, Peak Trust had nouniform or centralized system for managing andsecuring employee passwords. “We had people
individually selecting their own methods,” recalls
Lassila. “Some of them were using Dashlane or
another password manager, some of them werestoring passwords on spreadsheets, and some of themwere doing something else. Our people were using
everything under the sun to store passwords, and we
had no central management. Because we couldn’t
manage our employees’ password security, we had noidea what our password security posture would look
like during each audit period.”
Lassila knew the company needed a centralized way
to protect all of the company’s passwords, whichranged from door codes to website login credentials.
The ability to set up shared team folders was a key
requirement for any password management solution.
“Because we’re managing long-term relationships, alot of our employees work together in teams or as adepartment. We also work with external specialists,such as estate planning attorneys and CPAs,” Lassila
explains. “Even in my department, compliance, I workwith a specialist. I needed to be able to securely sharewebsite login credentials with employees and thirdparty business associates.”

Our people were using
everything under thesun to store passwords,
and we had no centralmanagement. Because
we couldn’t manage
our employees’
password security,
we had no idea what
our password security
posture would look
like during each audit
period.

© 2022 Keeper Security, Inc.

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SOLUTION: CENTRALIZE
EVERYTHING WITHIN KEEPER
Peak Trust’s vendor management program required the company to evaluate several password
management solutions prior to making a decision.
Ease of use was a common sticking point during the evaluation process.. “Some of the password
managers we looked at were not easy to use,” Lassila explains. “Others weren’t integrative. They
didn’t have auto-launch, auto-update, or central management features.”
Lassila was introduced to Keeper by Peak Trust’s CEO, who was already using it. “He had about
500 records stored in Keeper, and he swore by it,” says Lassila. Impressed by Keeper’s easeof use, centralized management, ability to create shared folders, and zero-knowledge security
model, Lassila eventually selected it as the company’s password management solution.

© 2022 Keeper Security, Inc.

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RESULTS & BENEFITS
Deploying Keeper, Lassila says, was “the easiest thing
I’ve ever done. It was so great. There were no challenges
at all. I could send invites, see who accepted them, andinstalled Keeper, and life went on.” Now, new employees
are trained on Keeper during the onboarding process.

Deploying Keeper
was the easiest thing
I’ve ever done. It wasso great. There wereno challenges at all. I
could send invites, see
who accepted them,and installed Keeper,and life went on.

Peak Trust employees make heavy use of shared folders.
“Shared folders allow users to support the compliancedepartment and the information security program,”says Lassila. “Our teams use it so much with CPAs andestate planning attorneys; they all have collaborative
portals. We simply store those credentials in our sharedfolders.” Lassila also likes Keeper’s zero-knowledgearchitecture and the fact that each user has their own
master password. “That takes the onus of memorizing
master passwords away from IT. I don’t want to know
other people’s passwords.”
Keeper also saves Peak Trust’s employees a lot oftime. Employees use Keeper to automatically generatestrong passwords for new accounts, and passwordreset requests for existing accounts have gone from
commonplace to nearly nonexistent. “We have a lot ofwebsites that we don’t access all the time, maybe every
six months. With Keeper, that doesn’t matter; employees
no longer have to remember where they put a password;
it’s just there waiting for them. It also saves time whenonboarding new employees. I just give them accessto the shared folders they need.” One user, Lassila
says, stores all of her websites in Keeper and launches
them directly from her vault instead of using browser
bookmarks.

© 2022 Keeper Security, Inc.

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Keeper also helps Peak Trust generate reports for FFIEC assessments. “Wejust use the admin console to run reports and communicate with colleagues,
which saves a lot of time during assessments. All of the information we needis in one place.”
Since implementing Keeper, Lassila has noticed a distinct change inorganizational culture with regard to cybersecurity. “Our people understandthat Keeper is a critical component of our IT security. Keeper has actually
helped elevate the level of interaction and respect among our employees
because they feel that they are adhering to the company’s security mission
while not stepping on each other’s toes. I can’t find anyone who dislikes
Keeper.”In fact, Peak Trust was so happy with Keeper’s deployment that they
converted a sister company from Dashlane to Keeper. “We have outside
directors on our board, and they all have Keeper now; our primaryshareholder and his family all have it. All of these people used to use
Dashlane, but now they’re Keeper converts.”
Lassila sees Peak Trust’s relationship with Keeper sustaining over thelong term. “Keeper is doing what they can as an organization to bring new
solutions to the marketplace,” he says, “and it’s great to see that innovation.
So many companies never think through their workflows. Keeper iscontinually demonstrating that it is maturing and evolving as the needs of its
customers mature and evolve.”

Our people understand that
Keeper is a critical componentof our IT security.

© 2022 Keeper Security, Inc.

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ABOUT KEEPER
Keeper Security, Inc. (Keeper) is the market-leading,
top-rated cybersecurity platform for preventing
password-related data breaches and cyberthreats.
Keeper’s zero-knowledge security and encryption
software is trusted by millions of people andthousands of businesses across the globe to mitigate
the risk of cybertheft, boost employee productivity
and meet compliance standards. Keeper has been
named PC Magazine’s Best Password Manager of theYear & Editors’ Choice, PCWorld’s Editors’ Choice
and is the winner of four G2 Best Software Awards
and the InfoSec Award for Best Product in Password
Management for SMB Cybersecurity. Keeper is SOC2 and ISO 27001 Certified and is also listed for use by
the U.S. federal government through the System forAward Management (SAM). Learn more athttps://keepersecurity.com.

Keeper Awards and Recognition

2021 Enterprise Leader
4.7 out of 5 stars

Editors’ Choice
4.5 out of 5 stars

Gartner Peer Insights
4.6 out of 5 stars

Keeper Third-Party Attestations and Certifications

Spiceworks
4.9 out of 5 stars

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Inc.
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