Risk Management

A collection of 89 posts

Risk Management

Why Check Fraud Isn’t Going to Magically Disappear Any Time Soon

You know what fraudsters and magicians have in common? The element of distraction, a masterful grasp on the sleight of hand and a penchant for trickery. The difference? One simply wants to entertain the masses while the other seeks to deceive for personal gain. In this age of multiple payment

Risk Management

The Domino Effect: Third-Party Vendor Data Breaches

It’s a beautiful day outside. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. The breeze feels nice. But then you get the dreadful news…one of your vendors had a data breach. And since your vendor had a data breach, that means it could affect your credit union, which

Risk Management

5 Steps for Easing into ERM

Building out an enterprise risk management (ERM) program can be overwhelming for financial institutions and others in the financial services industry. Risk management is a broad umbrella covering a wide range of risks, including operational, cybersecurity, compliance, reputation and financial risk, among others. With so many areas to cover, it’

Risk Management

When Social Engineering Meets Sherlock Holmes

‘Tis the season of social engineering…or is it? Truth be told, social engineering perpetrated by bad actors never takes a holiday, which means there is no one season where it’s more prevalent than another. Social engineering and its puppet masters adapt to us and our changes in the

Risk Management

Preparing for Ransomware Attacks Through Business Continuity Planning

That’ll never happen. That’s extremely unlikely. Planning for that is a waste of time. I’ve got more pressing projects to work on. Have you ever said anything like that when it came to business continuity planning? Have you ever thought those phrases but never said them out

Risk Management

How to Respond to 4 Common Technology Objections from Your Board

Your board of directors is responsible for safety and soundness, growth, and increasing the profitability of your institution — all while serving the needs of your customers, employees, and community. Meeting these goals requires that the board of directors makes wise investments in capital projects, including adding or upgrading technology. In

Risk Management

The Key to Cybersecurity is a Good Defense...And We Have the Key!

The world may seem larger than ever before, but attackers don’t think so. With our reliance on the virtual space to connect us and push technology into mainstream operations – especially those for financial institutions like credit unions – every device is an open invitation to steal data and network access.

Risk Management

Cybersecurity Awareness Month Takes the Scare Out of CU Security

Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger might strike fear in the hearts of horror fanatics this time of year, but the real villains are much more elusive and certainly more persistent. Bad actors, hackers, those who exploit your credit union and your members’ data are the real monsters, and

Risk Management

Are You Thinking About Climate Change?

Turn on any news channel, and you’re likely to hear about climate change. Step outside and feel the greenhouse effect its created. Go to a local car dealership and see the number of electric vehicles versus gas-powered ones. Suffice it to say, climate change is front and center

Risk Management

A Patch a Day Keeps the Vulnerabilities Away

The old adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” speaks volumes about the importance of preventative measures that protect your health. In the risk world, apples won’t do much, but there is something that will…patch management. Patches are essentially playing the same role as an apple

Risk Management

File or No File: When Does Unusual Become Suspicious?

Member activity can quickly move from something they haven’t done before to something you need to report. It’s important that everyone in your organization knows what to look for and how to escalate concerns. Determining when to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) can vary by institution, but

Risk Management

How will the New Cyber Incident Notification Rule Affect your FI? 4 Steps to Update Your Institution’s Incident Response Plan

Federal regulators have been encouraging financial institutions to share information about known cyber incidents for years. Now banks and their third-party service providers have until May 1, 2022, to comply with the new rule requiring prompt regulator notification in the event of a cyber incident. How to Respond When

Risk Management

Top Cybersecurity Pain Points Facing Credit Unions and How to Address Them

According to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, cyberattacks are one of the greatest risks to our global financial system [https://news.cuna.org/articles/119340-prepare-for-the-next-cyberattack-3-steps] . These risks have only increased as online financial transactions rise. For credit union cybersecurity, this means the effort

Risk Management

The Internet of Things or the Internet of Risk? That Depends…

Look around you. At quick glance, you might see a smart thermostat, smart phone, video doorbell or fitness tracker. These things tie you directly, whether knowingly or unknowingly, to the Internet of Things (IoT). But you’re not alone – Cisco estimates there will be an astounding 500 billion devices connected

Risk Management

The 4 Building Blocks of Business Resiliency in a Post-Pandemic World

It seems like a whole lifetime ago that we lived a in relatively worry-free Covid-free world. But, though it’s certainly not the existence we wish to have, the pandemic has taught people and businesses alike to be resilient – not just stable, but resilient. That’s why we

Risk Management

Multifactor Authentication: The Change Worth Considering

In the past two years, we have seen change after change after change. It started with the world seemingly shutting down with most of us beginning to work remotely, then went to us wearing masks when we did go out and now, we’re trying to settle into what seems

Risk Management

The Good Enough Myth: How the “Swiss Army Knife” of Business Tools Can Fail You

Today I’d like to share a story from The Financial Times [https://www.ft.com/] that’s very near and dear to my heart: The Tyranny of Spreadsheets: How One of Our Most Powerful Tools Became One of the Most Misused. If you’ve been using spreadsheets to manage

Risk Management

Who’s Really Behind Your Email Account?

Cloud-based servers can be extremely useful, wouldn’t you agree? You don’t have to worry about hardware maintenance, power consumption, redundancy or physical security. Not to mention, storage limits are more easily resolved with less down time. And how many of us have hit the “Save Password” button

Risk Management

Ransomware: 7 Tips for Managing A Growing Risk

Ten years ago, few people could have imagined that one of the greatest operational and data security threats to financial institutions would be extortionists holding data hostage. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening today with ransomware. The banking industry has become a massive ransomware target—and the threat is

Risk Management

Artificial Intelligence Won’t Replace You—But It Will Make You Smarter

Does the phrase “AI in risk and compliance management" conjure up images of robots taking over the world—or worse yet, replacing you at work? From the Terminator to Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey (and a spate of other films like Blade Runner and The Matrix), countless films

Risk Management

Find Your Hunger: Establishing Your Credit Union’s Risk Appetite

Hunger is a phenomenon we all experience, but it’s different for everyone. While some people wake up absolutely famished and ready for breakfast, others can get away with just a few small bites here and there until lunchtime. The key to resisting hunger is to know your appetite. The

Risk Management

To Ask or Not to Ask: That is the Compliance Question

Thanks to Sir William Shakespeare, the long-pondered question, “to be or not to be” has been applied to many situations. When you’re tired but busy, you might ask yourself, “to sleep or not to sleep.” When you want to make an expensive purchase, you may think, “to buy

Risk Management

Ask a Risk Manager: How Can Risk Management & Compliance Work Together

How can risk management and compliance work together as partners at a financial institution? There’s no one better to ask than someone who has worn both of those hats. Enter Denise Guira, senior vice president of integrated risk at $5.2 billion MIDFLORIDA Credit Union in Lakeland, Florida. Denise

Risk Management

The Cost of Compliance in 2021

Compliance isn’t cheap—but how much is it really costing the financial services industry and financial institutions like yours? Nearly one-third (31.4%) of community banks expect to spend 5 percent or more on compliance than they did in 2020, according to the 2021 Community Bank CEO Outlook

Risk Management

Making the Journey from Business Continuity to Business Resiliency

It all happened so fast. One day, we started hearing about a new virus on the news and within a few short weeks, much of the world was in complete lockdown. That meant employees couldn’t return to the office, as something as simple as having a two-minute watercooler