For years, credit unions and the rest of the financial industry have been expected to implement risk management processes and plans that address resilience in the face of existing and emerging risks. Previous guidance on resilience tended to focused on catastrophic disasters or other events that affect credit union operations. Moreover, previous guidance focused on how to minimize financial loss to the credit union and continue to serve members with minimal disruptions in the face of a disaster.
In February of this year, FFIEC added Appendix J, Strengthening the Resilience of Outsourced Technology Services (Appendix J or Guidance), to the Business Continuity Planning Booklet (BCP Booklet) of the IT Handbook. In general, Appendix J
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Under the new Appendix J’s Business Continuity Plan (BCP) cyber resilience guidelines, credit unions and their third-party service providers need to consider and incorporate the potential impact of a cyber-event. FFIEC notes five categories of cyber risks credit unions and their third-party service providers will need to address when updating their BCPs: 1) malware, 2) insider threats, 3) data or systems destruction and corruption, 4) communication infrastructure disruption, 5) and simultaneous attack on financial institutions and technology service providers. Below is a brief description of the five categories and FFIEC’s recommendations:
Malware. The use of malware in cyber-attacks against businesses are increasing. Malware is software that is intended to compromise computers and computer systems. Malware can be introduced into systems through a variety of methods, which include phishing emails and visiting compromised websites.
To the address the risks posed by malware, FFIEC recommends credit unions and their third-party service providers use a layered anti-malware strategy, which include integrity checks, anomaly detection, system behavior monitoring, and employee security awareness training. FFIEC also recommends strong passwords, appropriately controlled mobile devices, controls over access to social networks, regularly patched software and operating systems, and controlled and monitored internet access.
Shortly after issuing
Our company’s Continuity Management Program (CMP) dictates that the business adheres to an annual testing program. The program does utilize the guidelines from the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP). The Continuity Management team has written and scripted into our process to incorporate our Tabletop Exercise’s (TTX’s). Our annual process is to test each of our business units for resiliency. TTX’s allows for us to open up discussions and dialogues focusing on many different areas in the event we need to declare. Also, the exercises aid in discovering any gaps and working through each tier of the recovery process. Our business lines have Recovery Time Objectives (RTO’s) starting at 1 hour up to 72 hours. During the TTX’s we cover the business impact analysis (BIA’s ) and each of the RTO’s.
Malware refers to any computer program that is designed to do things that are harmful to or unwanted by a computer's legitimate user.
The Greiblock Credit Union needs to take a look at the hazard and potential effect on the organizations from the different types of cybercrime. What is the danger to the business and what parts are defenseless? This is, in actuality, a hazard appraisal, and it is performed at the
After the business continuity plan is completed Incident Response (IR) planning and incident response plan should be performed and established. An incident response plan is “a detailed set of processes and procedures that anticipate, detect, and mitigate the effects of an unexpected event that might compromise information resources and assets.” (Whitman) This is done by first forming an IR committee, establishing an IR policy that integrates the business impact analysis into the incident response plan.
(Galligan, 2015) There are growing concerns at all levels of industry about the challenges posed by cyber-crime,” said Robert B. Hirth Jr., COSO chairperson. “This new guidance helps put organizations on the right path toward confronting and managing the frightening number of cyber-attacks.” (Perez, 2015) The annual Section 404 of SOX and the quarterly section of 302 of SOX should support this principle of COSO. (PROVITI,
Malware is a class of malicious code that incorporates viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. Specialized communication tools are used by destructive malwares in order to spread. Malwares could be distributed by means of email and texts, Trojan horses dropped from web sites, and virus-infected records obtained from peer-to-peer connections. Malwares looks for existing flaws and loopholes in the system architecture to make a peaceful and simple entrance.
To ensure that GCU complies with current National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) rules and regulations, policies and procedures must be developed and implemented that will ensure compliance by GCU and its employees. Cybersecurity has become a threat to all financial institutions that it has compelled the NCUA to evaluate the measures that GCU has taken to protect sensitive data and its ability to recover from an incident (Matz, 2015). Accordingly, GCU senior management has approved and implemented the following policies and procedures comprising three key areas:
The risk of financial sector in the United States of America has become increasingly more apparent and more diverse to the United States over the last few decades partially because of the advanced computer and cyber based accounting networks that the Nation has shifted to. The security of our financial systems is absolutely critical including being one of the primary concerns and directly
The fix to the Malware problem is the implementation of the NIST SP 800-83 regulation. It covers all aspects of malware handling and will assist in mitigating the
Contingency planners are now asserting that contingency planning is a value-added component that can be a competitive advantage in the marketplace as well a means of helping organizations save money. Processes that are deeply analyzed in terms of continuity will usually be more secure, and new ways of working may emerge to help streamline operations. Contingency planning can be useful when forging alliances with external organizations or during acquisition phases. Contingency planning should be part of an organization’s quality cycle as well. “Business continuity and disaster recovery have gained somewhat in the eyes of top corporate management since the start of the 1990s. As the industry has slowly evolved from what could almost have been called a ‘black art’ to something starting to resemble a disciplined science, basic business principles have begun to become increasingly relevant” (Rothstein, 2003, p. 1).
To understand the business of malware, one must understand how malware has evolved in the past twenty-five years. Malware, which includes all kinds of malicious software, was originally created to show the weaknesses of computers. The first type of malware, created in 1986, was a virus called “Brain.A. Brain.A was developed in Pakistan, by two brothers - Basit and Amjad. They wanted to prove that PC is not secure platform, so they created virus that was replicating using floppy disks” (Milošević). Even today malware is still used to check the security of machines.
Malwares are mischievous programs crafted to agitate or forbid normal operations to gather selected information which may lead to loss of privacy through
“Business continuity planning is the process of ensuring that your organization can continue doing business even when its normal facilities or place of business is unavailable” (Peltier, 2014). This statement should hold true for any business wishing to compete in today’s market and apply to more than just natural disasters. Although natural disasters should remain an integral part of any continuity plan and recovery model, other man-made disasters, such as computer viruses and physical security should be considered.
Malicious software (malware) is any product that offers control of your PC to do whatever the malware creator needs. Malware can be an infection, worm, Trojan, adware, spyware, root pack. The harm done can shift from something slight as changing the creator's name on a report to full control of your machine without your capacity to effortlessly figure out. Most malware requires the client to start its
In the previous five years, cybersecurity has turned into the most looked for after calling around the world. More than 90 percent of respondents to an overview directed by the Ponemon Institute (2011) detailed being a casualty to cyberattacks amid the most recent year, costing all things considered more than $2 million for each association. This number keeps on ascending as the two programmers and security devices progress. As indicated by PwC, roughly 33% of all U.S. organizations are as of now utilizing digital protection (Lindros and Tittel, 2016).