3 Ways Your Credit Union Can Improve Data Protection
Technology is always advancing. Sometimes this is a good thing, allowing those in the financial industry to serve more people. Other times, criminals can use technology to hurt us, such as through cyberattacks. The goal of many cyberattacks is to steal valuable data from businesses and individuals. We must do everything we can to improve data protection and stop this from happening. The following three ways are helpful for your credit union to improve data protection.
Train Employees To Watch for Cyberattacks
Many cyberattacks are successful because the recipients don’t recognize that a cyberattack is happening. While no one can completely prevent these human errors, better employee training can decrease the chances that your credit union will fall to a cyberattack. Train all new employees in basic cybersecurity with helpful examples when they start at your credit union. Provide updated annual cybersecurity training for all other employees.
Invest in a Security Operations Center
Ideally, someone or something is monitoring your credit union’s information systems, so threats don’t even reach employees. However, paying employees to monitor information systems 24–7 is expensive. A centralized security operations center can provide this helpful monitoring at a more affordable rate. While most credit unions aren’t large enough to warrant their own security operations center, many cybersecurity companies offer affordable monitoring.
Wipe Data Before Recycling Technology
Cyberattacks can happen even when your computers are no longer in your possession if you’re not careful. If you’re planning to update your credit union’s computers, you need to completely wipe your data from the old computers. Wiping data is one of the most important parts of properly recycling electronic waste and protecting your information. Otherwise, criminals can buy your old tech and collect sensitive data.
Your credit union can improve data protection in these three ways to put yourselves and your customers at ease. We must work hard to stay up to date on technology to prevent cyberattacks and maintain our integrity.