Gone are the days of Bonnie and Clyde, when a car with a V-8 engine was the preferred vehicle for robbing financial institutions. Today, the threat has moved into the less tangible cyberspace, but credit unions are still targets.
At Filene Research Institute’s Jan. 26 Research Colloquium, titled Credit Unions in the Crosshairs: Cyber
Losses Are Real, industry experts discussed the evolving risk landscape and
offered insights into how credit unions can best protect themselves from data
breaches.
At the event, CUNA Mutual Group’s Theran Colwell, Risk Management Director, and Jay Isaacson, Vice President, Product Executive addressed the
troubling reality that no credit union is completely excluded from being the
target of a cyberattack.
“We’ve seen credit unions across the asset spectrum and all over the country impacted by data breaches,” explained Colwell.
And, with the growing complexity and connectivity of credit
unions and their products and services, the severity of data breaches is only
growing, as is the average cost per incident. The ever-increasing risk of a breach
means there has never been a better time for credit unions to take proactive
measures.
According to Colwell, data breaches can occur because of
employee negligence or theft, lost or stolen laptops, vendor leaks or mistakes
and network hackers and malware. The single best preventive measure credit
unions can take to protect against these potential risks is implementing
layered levels of security that protect data at rest, in motion and in use.
“A common denominator of many cybersecurity claims is the lack of data encryption. If credit unions encrypt the data they transmit over the Internet and in emails, as well as the data that resides on their network, mobile devices, backup tapes and disks, they can drastically reduce their risk,” noted Colwell.
Additional protections include blocking access to personal
email accounts on network computers, implementing endpoint security on devices
connected to the credit union network and deploying a data loss prevention
solution.
For more ways to protect your credit union and to learn more
about cybersecurity risks and best practices, keep an eye out for Filene's research report – based on insights from the Colloquium – which is expected to
be released this April.
NOTE: An alternate version of this post appeared originally in CUInsights.
NOTE: An alternate version of this post appeared originally in CUInsights.
