Financial Industry Archives

customer data

The Proactive Way to Manage Customer Data

With 2017 behind us and the new year beginning, there’s no time like now to reevaluate how your organization handles sensitive customer information. With data breaches increasing year after year, everyone should turn their gaze inward to ensure they are taking a proactive cybersecurity stance. Why is this so important? Here’s an example of everything that can go wrong if you don’t protect your customer’s data. Breach Fallout This year, the California Attorney General announced a $2 million settlement with Cottage Health — a healthcare network — after the organization suffered two separate breaches in 2013 and 2015, exposing the information of about 55,000 patients. Upon investigation, Cottage Health discovered that a third-party managed services provider named Insync reportedly removed

BAI Security January 3, 2018

Banking

New Study Reveals the True Effect Data Breaches have on Customer Loyalty

Suffering a breach is scary. The loss of crucial data and records can deal a crippling blow for any organization forced into extended downtime. But the worst part of a breach may not be the attack itself; the repercussions of this attack can have much further reaching effects. We’ve speculated about this effect in the past, but a new study by Carnegie Mellon University (reported on by The Register) confirms our suspicions: suffering a breach can cost you customers. Lack of Information Studies connecting consumer loyalty to breaches or fraud have been hard to come by in recent years, making this study especially noteworthy. Generally, we know that stock prices of organizations – especially financial institutions – take a hit after suffering breaches,

BAI Security February 24, 2017

Credit union

What to Know About the FFIEC’s Cybersecurity Assessment Tool FAQ

Back in 2015, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) released its Cybersecurity Assessment Tool. Designed to assist financial institutions of all sizes identify and assess risks and weaknesses in their cybersecurity posture, it has notably been met with widespread confusion and complaints. The FFIEC has recently tried to clear some of this up by releasing a “Frequently Asked Questions” guide to the tool, with mixed results. Original Concerns These complaints include everything from critiques on the effectiveness of the tool to confusion over whether it is truly voluntary or not and frustration over the amount of time needed to collect and input data into the tool itself. Banking institutions have also been wondering exactly how this tool should be

BAI Security October 31, 2016

Cybersecurity

FINANCIAL INDUSTRY IT SECURITY 2015 TO-DO LIST

The forthcoming cybersecurity guidance from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council is expected to focus on people and processes that defend against specific types of threats, Future IT examinations for all sizes of banking institutions will include reviews of employee awareness of security threats, the depth and breadth of an institution’s training programs, patching policies, and – especially – securing mobile banking. When will the guidance be released? There is no date set as yet for when the guidance will be issued, but all indications point to 2015. Congressional pressure on industries to address the growing numbers of data breaches, combined with the banking industry’s strong interest in delivering mobile services, will likely push the FFIEC to move forward comparatively quickly with

BAI Security November 26, 2014