Links in “Cybersecurity/Data Breaches”

Chicago had two massive fires more than a century ago that burned large portions of the city. The buildings were row houses, which were attached to each other and made of wood. No amount of fire stations or firemen could stop such fires. The city implemented a new building code that required brick walls between row houses (where the term "firewall" comes from). This type of substantive change is needed to stabilize the safety of the internet. [3/25/15]

More than 40 consumers around the country received text messages from fraudsters posing as the NCUA and asking for personal information. If your institution has a consumer receiving one of these texts, have them contact the NCUA. [3/26/15]

NCUA issues a warning that an Australian phishing scheme is sending out emails from an NCUA lookalike called "National Credit Union," which is seeking to persuade consumers to provide personal information and transfer large amounts of money. [3/25/15]

"Baseball" is number one on the list of most-common sports-related passwords. "Football" is second. Top individual on the list is "jordan" (at #4). Top team on the list: "yankees" (at #6). Where is your team on the 25 worst sports-related passwords? [3/24/15]

Speakers at a Fed Reserve conference don't think so. Reasons include our dual state and federal banking charter system, unregulated private equity and hedge funds, a regulatory framework in need of streamlining, and lack of openness. [3/24/15]

Survey finds 60% of consumers trust banks to keep their personal information secure, compared to health insurance companies (26%), credit card companies (24%), brick-and-mortar retailers (17%), and online retailers (10%). [3/24/15]

At least 82% of bank CEOs, CROs, and directors cite cybersecurity as a top concern. [3/23/15]

$1 billion Max Credit Union is now living a social media nightmare after an employee allegedly posted a negative comment about a member on the credit union’s Facebook site generating some significant backlash.  An investigation is underway by the local sheriff’s department to determine whether the employee posted that the member had a negative account balance. [3/23/15]

Target has agreed to pay the members of a consumer class action suit a total of $10 million as a result of Target’s massive data breach in 2013.  If approved by the court, members would receive about $10,000 each.  Credit unions are still waiting to recover their estimated $30 million in costs as a result of the breach. [3/20/15]

The FTC has some significant concerns about the draft data security bill released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. A representative from the FTC stated that the bill is not broad enough and doesn’t provide the agency with authority to draft rules or to update security requirements as needs and technology changes; the authority that the FCC currently has. [3/20/15]