How Absolute Logic Takes the Stress Out of Compliance Audits for Fort Funding Corp.
Mortgage Brokerage | 7 States | 4 Offices | ~50 Employees | Client Since 2017
Executive Summary
Tired of protracted and stressful auditing processes, Gus Zacharakos knew that Fort Funding needed more than traditional IT support. It needed a partner who understood the unique regulatory demands of the mortgage industry. Since partnering with Absolute Logic in 2017, Fort Funding has transformed compliance from a recurring source of stress into a routine business process.
Today, the firm relies on Absolute Logic to manage its cybersecurity, maintain continuous audit readiness, respond to incidents, evaluate emerging technologies, and ensure it remains prepared for evolving regulatory requirements.
Meet Fort Funding Corp
Fort Funding Corp has been arranging mortgages since 1993, when it opened in a small Brooklyn office. Today the firm brokers residential purchases, refinances, and a large volume of commercial loans across seven states, working from four offices: three in New York and one in Boca Raton, Florida.
A brokerage of that size and reach depends on two things: access to lenders and the confidence of regulators. Lender relationships are Fort Funding's own expertise, but the regulatory side is where an IT partner matters most, because a compliance mistake can be expensive.
Fort Funding Team at LendersOne Mortgage Banking Conference
Navigating NYDFS Cybersecurity Compliance
Gus Zacharakos, President and CEO of Fort Funding, does not have time to worry about his company's IT. With the right team in place, he does not have to. He and his team can focus on their work, and leave the maintenance and security of their IT systems to the team at Absolute Logic.
What Gus knows thoroughly is the regulatory environment, and it is demanding. Fort Funding answers to the New York State Department of Financial Services, which Gus considers the strictest banking regulator in the country. A single New York audit runs to about thirty pages of questions, and the final twelve cover cybersecurity. For a firm holding borrower records across seven states, a wrong answer at any stage in this type of audit has real consequences.
Gus Zacharakos
President and CEO at Fort Funding
For firms handling borrowers' financial information, complying with cybersecurity regulatory requirements isn't just about passing an audit. It is about protecting customer data, maintaining lender confidence, and preserving licenses to operate.
A Stressful Audit That Prompted Change
Fort Funding learned that the hard way. Before 2017, the firm was with a different IT services provider when a New York State audit arrived, and the provider was not equipped for it. By Gus's account, the company did not know half the rules it was being tested against.
“It was a nightmare, a disaster.” Says Gus
Finding the Right Compliance Partner
Gus knew he had to make a change. As luck would have it, the right introduction came almost immediately. While speaking on a panel at a Long Island conference alongside a deputy commissioner from the New York State Banking Division, someone in the audience recommended he call Al Alper of Absolute Logic. Gus reached out the very next day. Al visited the office almost immediately, and Fort Funding signed on shortly thereafter.
“For that, Absolute Logic is worth their weight in gold.”
Gus Zacharakos
Over time, Gus came to realize that Absolute Logic wasn't simply another IT provider. Their understanding of financial services cybersecurity and regulatory obligations gave Fort Funding confidence that audits would no longer be something to fear.
Fort Funding has not looked at another compliance provider since, and the improvement was clear from the start.
The Day-to-Day Compliance Work
Absolute Logic's compliance management and support runs quietly in the background of Fort Funding's operations. Absolute Logic reviews, remediates and manages compliance on an ongoing basis. The team performs regular vulnerability assessments, security testing, documentation reviews, policy updates, employee security awareness training, and evidence collection throughout the year so that when regulators request proof, it already exists. With Absolute Logic, Gus doesn't give cyber audits a second thought, knowing that they will take care of it.
“Even though I still do, I know I don't even have to look at it.”
Rather than reacting to audits, Fort Funding now stays continuously audit-ready. Gus still reads and verifies the finished responses before they go back to the state, but he no longer has to worry about them. The same approach applies when a cybersecurity alert comes in: most are not real breaches, more often being a blocked intrusion attempt or a notice about an employee who opened a phishing email by accident. Absolute Logic isolates the affected systems immediately, remediates whatever the issue was, and, when required, files the report showing that no data was compromised. To keep those incidents as rare as possible, Absolute Logic runs annual security and phishing training, and ongoing micro-training for Fort Funding, ensuring their users are prepared to spot and mitigate cyber scams.
When regulatory requirements and cybersecurity rules change (a regular occurrence in New York), Absolute Logic takes action quickly: minor updates are noted with Fort Funding by email, and for anything significant, Absolute Logic calls Gus and his compliance lead directly, and walks them through what the firm has to do. Often, they don't need to take any action at all, because Absolute Logic has proactively ensured the company's cybersecurity and compliance standards remain current without requiring Fort Funding to constantly monitor changing regulations themselves. That confidence in Absolute Logic's compliance expertise ultimately led Fort Funding to expand the relationship, entrusting them with the company's entire IT environment.
Seamlessly Handling Outages and Emergencies
Technology fails on its own schedule. Gus compares it to catching the flu on a Friday night when the doctor is unreachable. A large loan comes in, the team plans to work the weekend, and that is precisely when something breaks. While Gus might worry about calling another vendor for help after hours, he knows Absolute Logic will be there to help.
“They answer every time we need help.”
Gus Zacharakos
Someone calls back and starts working on the problem, allowing Fort Funding to get back to work as quickly as possible. More significant challenges to the company's uptime are handled just as gracefully. When the New Jersey office in Matawan flooded and the surrounding neighborhood was underwater, Absolute Logic had the branch running again within a couple of hours on servers moved elsewhere, at a time before cloud backups made that kind of recovery routine. Even a routine laptop replacement is simple: Absolute Logic sends Gus the specifications, the machine is set up with every program link configured and password protected, and Fort Funding's team is back to work again with minimal delay. The experience reinforced an important lesson: disaster recovery plans only matter if they work when you need them most.
Managing Third-Party Cyber Risk
Without being asked, Absolute Logic regularly brings new ideas to Fort Funding. When the firm showed an interest in using a new AI tool that takes in loan documents, sorts the files, and flags what is missing, Absolute Logic looked into the vendor closely. They flagged one key concern: whether the vendor carried enough insurance to cover a breach. Fort Funding requested the vendor's insurance declaration, reviewed it with its own broker, confirmed the coverage was adequate, and adopted the tool with confidence.
Innovation is another part of the relationship. Rather than simply maintaining existing technology, Absolute Logic regularly evaluates emerging products and proactively recommends solutions that can improve security, compliance, and operational efficiency, often flagging a product they have come across and think could help, sometimes before Fort Funding even knew it existed.
“They're not afraid of being first and calling and recommending or suggesting something.”
The Results
Since partnering with Absolute Logic in 2017, Fort Funding has shifted from scrambling ahead of each audit to operating in a state of continuous readiness. The engagement has delivered results across compliance, security, and daily operations:
Clean NYDFS Audit Record
Passed multiple NYDFS cybersecurity audits with no findings, with Absolute Logic completing each audit's twelve-page cybersecurity section and keeping supporting evidence ready before regulators ask.
Faster Incident Response and Recovery
Improved incident response and disaster recovery, addressing security events immediately and, in one case, restoring the flooded Matawan branch within hours on relocated servers.
No More Audit Scramble
Eliminated the annual last-minute rush, because vulnerability testing, policy updates, and evidence collection now run continuously rather than in a panic before each exam.
Leadership Freed From IT
Let Gus and his team concentrate on lending and running the business instead of monitoring systems or chasing constantly changing regulatory requirements themselves.
Always Current With Regulations
Maintained continuous readiness as rules change, with Absolute Logic tracking NYDFS updates and the states that mirror them, so Fort Funding rarely acts directly.
One Trusted Partner for Compliance and IT
Expanded from cybersecurity compliance into fully managed IT, once the compliance work earned enough confidence for Fort Funding to hand over its entire technology environment.
Stronger Employee Security Awareness
Reduced the human-error incidents, such as opened phishing emails, that set off most alerts, through annual security training and ongoing micro-training for every user.
A Proactive Technology Advisor
Gained a partner that proactively vets new tools and third-party vendors, including AI providers, for security and insurance risk well before Fort Funding adopts them.
Why Fort Funding Recommends Absolute Logic
The IT services provider they had before still shapes how Gus thinks about quality of service. That company often did not get in touch (or even notice) when a breach occurred. They did not know Fort Funding's system was down before the staff did, leaving Gus and his team to reach out to them. The experience with Absolute Logic has been the complete opposite. Since hiring them, Fort Funding has had no cybersecurity issues with the banking department at all. For Gus, the clearest measure of success is that they don't have to worry about audits anymore.
That record has made Gus a genuine advocate. He has already referred them to a peer in commercial lending who was struggling with his own IT, passing along Absolute Logic's information directly.
“I would refer Absolute Logic without hesitation, not even a second thought. I trust them.”
For a firm where a single missed regulation or unhandled breach can put licenses in seven states at risk, that trust is not given lightly. It is why the relationship has lasted, and why Gus reaches for Absolute Logic first whenever a question of compliance or technology comes up.
How Absolute Logic Can Help
Whether you’re preparing for regulatory audits, strengthening cybersecurity, modernizing critical systems, or looking for a technology partner you can trust, Absolute Logic helps organizations reduce risk, improve resilience, and focus on what they do best.
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