Links in “Cybersecurity/Data Breaches”

In a recent Letter to Credit Unions (15-CU-01), NCUA announced that its top three areas of supervisory focus for this year will be cyber security, interest rate risk, and Bank Secrecy Act compliance. The letter also notes that there will be increased focus in the lending area to ensure compliance with new mortgage rules, as well as increased scrutiny in the areas of indirect lending and subprime lending. [1/7/15]

In light of the recent data breach caused by an NCUA examiner’s loss of a credit union’s thumb drive, Chairman Matz announced that the agency is considering a proposed rule that would require credit unions to encrypt data provided to examiners. In addition, Matz stated that informing the public sooner about this low-level breach could have encouraged criminal activity. [1/7/15]

Cyber attacks aren't going away in 2015. What remains to be seen is whether organizations will start responding better. Intrusions must be detected and contained quickly. [1/7/15]

Expect fraudsters to speed up efforts to steal magnetic strip and PIN data while they can still be used in counterfeit card fraud ahead of the EMV roll out. That's one of several fraud trends predicted for 2015 in this post. [1/6/15]

Management confirmed that an investigation is underway, but did not report how many locations or which locations were affected. An anonymous source claims that the primary locations impacted by the breach are located in Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. [1/5/15]

FBI is looking into whether banks have enlisted the aid of hackers to disable servers used by Iran to attack banks. When it comes to cyber security, the best defense may be a good offense, but is it legal? [12/31/14]

Is your institution involved in credit card processing? If so, your new year will begin with a new set of requirements. Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) version 3.0 goes into effect Jan. 1, 2015 and institutions are expected to be on board. [12/31/14]

The FTC came out with a short video detailing the importance of backing up vital information for all computer users. [12/30/14]

NCUA Inspector General James Hagen has launched an investigation into the data breach related to an NCUA examiner losing Palm Springs FCU's flash drive containing sensitive member information. Hagen announced that he will also be investigating the agency’s decision to keep the incident from the public and the source of the leak to the media. [12/30/14]

That’s what some industry security experts are concerned about. EMV chip-and-PIN technology will make it more difficult for hackers to obtain consumer information from the big retailers and so hackers may redouble their efforts to hack into credit unions and banks. [12/29/14]