The Most Recent Posts

November 19, 2008 - Tom Field

As wild as the end of 2008 has been, I can't get my mind off 2009.

This is because I'm just now helping to put the finishing touches on our annual State of Banking Information Security survey, which helps us take the pulse of the banking/security community, so we can gauge the priorities for the year ahead.

Last year - the survey's first - we quickly determined that customer confidence was a huge topic for banking institutions, and see how that's played out this year....

November 18, 2008 - David Schneier

I was watching CNN this morning, and one of the stories they covered was that of President-elect Obama's selecting his cabinet. In a poll taken regarding this topic, 41% of respondents identified the Secretary of the Treasury as the most important position to be filled; Secretary of State was a distant second at 25%. Think about that for a moment ...

It really shouldn't come as any great surprise, as polls like this one often reflect what's occupying everyone's mind, and these days it's all about the economy....

November 12, 2008 - Tom Field

OK, so first came the subprime mortgage debacle, and it was bad.

Then came the global credit crunch, and it was worse. Reading the economic tea leaves, the feds in October swept in with a $700 billion economic relief package designed to bail out some of the nation's troubled financial institutions. So, then we saw:...

November 7, 2008 - David Schneier

I'm traveling this week and figured I wouldn't have time to make my weekly blog entry while managing through a very full schedule. Writing these posts by itself is simple enough once you have a topic or idea to work with, but air travel, long car rides and fieldwork at multiple client sites don't allow much room for creative thinking. So it was with some degree of surprise that within the first 24 hours of my work week I encountered not one, not two, but three different items of interest that were worth sharing....

November 5, 2008 - Linda McGlasson

Standing in line to vote yesterday evening at my local middle school, I thought there were a lot of things that the 44th President will have to fix: the economy, the country, the federal government, the out of whack federal budget. Whew! That's a lot, just on a national scale; we're not even talking global problems that need fixing.

But there has been for our industry (financial services and information security in particular) a really big hanging chad question since Bush took office back in 2001....

November 5, 2008 - Tom Field

At least one question has been answered.

With the election of Barack Obama as the next U.S. President, we know who our nation's leader will be for the next four years. And with Democrats picking up additional seats as the majority party in both the House and Senate, we have a sense that Obama is going to have some congressional support for the change he's promised.

The real question is: What kind of change are we talking about for the banking industry?...

November 4, 2008 - Tom Field

Couple things I'd like to quickly bring to your attention.

First, have you checked out any of the new Bank Information Security Handbooks we introduced last week?

These electronic editions compile highlights of our content - articles, interviews, blog postings, agency alerts, etc. - in a unique format that gives you access to broad information resources from our ever-expanding content library. The goal is to put more information at your fingertips - help you make better-informed decisions. Humbly, I think we've succeeded....

October 31, 2008 - David Schneier

Hard to believe that November 1 is already upon us, bringing the onset of the Identity Theft Red Flags Rule compliance. We've been reading about and discussing it for so long that it almost seemed as if though it would always remain six months away, but even a watched regulation eventually transitions into effect. And so here we are with my kids eagerly anticipating Halloween candy and me anxiously waiting for the first formal examiner's review of a Red Flags program.

However, I'm in a better position to forecast how it's likely to go down. We've started seeing final draft versions of Red Flags programs from our clients, and combined with the availability of the agencies' related examination procedures I'm developing a perspective not previously possible....

October 29, 2008 - Linda McGlasson

As institutions look at their calendars and see that November 1 compliance deadline looming, it's time to realize that this isn't just another regulation. The ID Theft Red Flags Rule is about stopping identity theft from happening to your customers.

When I hear information security professionals say they're overwhelmed with the amount of work that is having to be done to comply with such regulatory requirements, I think of what my grandmother always used to tell us when we grandkids were squabbling over something or tormenting our siblings - "Treat others as you would like to be treated; that's the Golden Rule."...

October 24, 2008 - David Schneier

It's interesting how with everything going on in our industry this year, between the credit crisis, bank mergers, bank closings and emerging regulatory compliance requirements (and on and on and on), that we haven't had time to discuss much else. However, work continues out in the trenches, money is still moving into and out of a dizzying array of accounts and investment products, exams are occurring and (for what I suspect is the vast majority of our industry) life goes on.

So, when I was having a conversation with the Managing Partner of my firm and touching on some of the more noteworthy details from the myriad meetings and activities that occurred during the week, there was one topic that surfaced a few times and it had nothing to do with current events....

October 22, 2008 - Linda McGlasson

I just have to chuckle sometimes when I read headlines like the one that appeared recently - 'Dark Market' Takedown: Exclusive Cyber Club for Crooks Exposed.

It seems that the FBI is getting pretty clever at "blending" into the cyber criminal world. A tip of the hat goes to Shawn Henry, the FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director, and his team for turning the tables on this group of cyber criminals....