Recently, a number of fraudulent emails were sent to BSA officers at banks and credit unions across the country. The fraudulent email looked like it was sent by a BSA officer at a credit union, asking the recipient for help with a money laundering issue involving a mutual customer; however, the email was actually sent by an attacker.

Lenders are taught to approve loans based on the 5 C’s of credit (character, capacity, capital, collateral and condition). But cybersecurity threats are increasing in speed and sophistication, and all businesses and industries are at risk. Has your bank considered the 6th C of credit - cybersecurity risk?

An articleⁱ from The Wall Street Journal illustrates a major disadvantage that employers face: The demand for IT professionals is greater than the supply of qualified people. Today, more Chief Information Officers are not sticking around.

A board’s primary responsibility is to manage risk of all types in the bank, including information security risk. Carrying out good risk management also helps the director to avoid personal liability.

To perform top-level oversight and monitoring of information security as regulators require, the board needs accurate and high-quality information. There are several ways to think about what kinds of IT information the board should receive, and how much:

Overview:
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has released a Cybersecurity Resource Guide. The newly developed guide provides a variety of resources specifically designed to help the financial sector address cybersecurity risks and threats while enhancing preparedness.

Recently, several U.S. senators asked the banking agencies to state whether supervisory guidance has the force of law or not. In other words, are banks required to follow supervisory guidance in the same way they are required to follow laws and regulations?

In the past 30 days, six banks from Iowa, Colorado, Wisconsin and Illinois chose BankOnIT’s Bankers Private Cloud^® to help them gain greater reliability, security and efficiency with their information
technology networks.

Following are some of the reasons these and more banks are choosing BankOnIT:

As cybersecurity threats continue to increase, your bank’s regulatory risk grows as well. By moving IT from the back room to the boardroom, regulators are recognizing the impact that technology has on the overall safety and soundness of a financial institution. If a cyber breach or event occurs, it will prompt additional regulatory attention. Furthermore, regulators continue to consider ways to factor a bank’s IT rating into the CAMELS management rating given the detrimental impact cyber events have on an organization.

… and I know what you did.

Criminals’ latest tactic involves sending emails (or even letters via USPS) to people in an attempt to scare, intimidate and extort money from the victim¹. Many contain messages along the lines of “I know about the secret you’re keeping from your wife. You can ignore this letter and suffer the consequences of your family discovering what you did last week or pay me a $10,000 confidentiality fee.” Many times the request is made to be paid in Bitcoin (untraceable) along with an explanation on how to use Bitcoin to make the payment.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already in use at some banks, and allows them to make decisions that help decrease risk and improve efficiencies. AI is allowing these banks to make smarter decisions and make
them faster.