Understanding the risks of different types of Mobile Banking transactions...

While leaving responsibility for personal mobile banking security solely in the hands of financial institutions is a poor strategy, your CU needs to do its part. Is yours?

Image source: gadgetdude / CC BY 2.0

There are a number of different mobile banking techniques, and with each comes a specific set of security rationale. Both your CU and its members need to understand the various possible attack scenarios against mobile banking systems and what can be done to minimize risk.

Security controls built into smartphone operating systems are now thought to be stronger than those built into desktop computers; however mobile device malware threats are growing rapidly. Your members can easily undermine mobile banking security and thus actively monitoring the health of their devices can help them to protect their data.

Read the article and learn about the various types of mobile banking transactions and their associated risks.

Criminals push malware by 'losing' USB sticks in parking lots

Finders keepers...or so it seems that's what a cybercriminal was counting on in order to hack into DSM's corporate network.

Image source: Article

Employees of the Dutch branch of the multinational chemical company recently found several USB sticks on the ground in the company parking lot which appeared to be lost by their original owner. When DSM's IT department examined the sticks, they were found to be loaded with malware set to autorun on company computers and harvest employee login credentials.

Did a cybercriminal drop these infected USB sticks in the company parking lot in hopes that unsuspecting employees would find and use them?

Don't let cybercriminals outsmart your CU's personnel. Read the full article for more details.

Researchers Find Serious Flaws in Popular Point-of-Sale System

VeriFone Systems' widely used Artema Hybrid point-of-sale system has been found by Security Research Labs in Germany to have several serious vulnerabilities which enable attackers to alter transactions, steal card data, and perform other malicious activity.

Image source: Nik Hewitt

The series of weaknesses discovered within some of the terminals gives attackers pathways into the system both remotely and via local interface. The bigger issue however is what an attacker can do after gaining access to the system. The most serious attack scenario would involve the attacker not only stealing data from a payment card, but modifying the transaction itself as well by changing the amount charged to the card.

VeriFone is currently investigating the situtation to determine the appropriate countermeasures and will release an update when further information is available. Read the details of the report in the Threatpost article.

BYOD is a user-driven movement, not a secure mobile device strategy

As phenomenal as the “bring your own device” (BYOD) movement may be, it sure is complicating things for IT security planning.

Image source: imsmartin

Whether people are bringing their own mobile devices into the workplace in order to access corporate resources or simply to check their social networks, the movement is unstoppable. Recent reports from sources such as Gartner and Cisco forecast 90% of businesses supporting corporate applications on mobile devices by 2014, and a 3.47 average number of devices per person by 2015, expected to increase to 6.58 devices per person by 2020.

That’s a lot of personal devices for your credit union to manage. What to do?

The basic options are: block ALL devices not provisioned, block NO devices at all, or control access for SOME devices, granting or blocking access to resources based on need and risk. Addressing this question alone, however, is not enough, as the real challenge still remains: secure mobility. Even more important than managing device access to your network is controlling what these devices can do while they have access.

What’s your strategy? Is it working? Learn more about combining "mobile device management" (MDM) with "mobile application management" (MAM) and stay on top of BYOD.

7 tips for establishing a successful BYOD policy

This pressure might leave you wondering the keys to developing a BYOD policy and how best to implement it.

Image source: Article

The seven core ideas contained in the article should be a part of any good Bring Your Own Device program. Each idea comes with many important questions to ask yourself, your IT associates and your executive team while developing a BYOD policy.

First on the list: Specify what devices are permitted. It's important to decide exactly what you mean when you say "bring your own device." Make it clear to employees who are interested in BYOD which devices you will support - in addition to whatever CU-issued devices you continue to deploy-and which you won't.

Read the full article to see the rest of the BYOD tips.