Confidence in credit unions up, banks down

Credit unions once again take the lead over banks when it comes to trustworthiness in the public eye.

Image source: Geograph

According to the latest Chicago Booth/Kellogg School quarterly survey results, respondents’ confidence in credit unions rose to 63 percent, a few points up from the previous quarter’s 58 percent. Meanwhile the percentage of respondents who trust large banks dropped from 25 percent to 23 percent. In contrast, trust in small community banks got a more favorable 55 percent, up from 51 percent the previous quarter.

As a whole, trust in the overall financial system isn’t looking so good, down to only 21 percent of respondents stating that they do trust the system – the lowest result this category has seen since the March 2009 poll was taken as the global economic crisis steamrolled through the industry.

What else is on your members’ minds? Get more survey results from the article and see where people are putting their trust and what gives them cold feet.

Android app steals contactless credit card data

Better not let your members get too comfy with their contactless cards.

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paycardreader, the Android application capable of siphoning credit card data from contactless bank cards has been posted on Google Play Store by a German penetration tester.

The app, which skims card numbers, expiration dates, transaction data, and merchant IDs, was launched at Integralis Security World 12 in Germany while considered still unstable. Developer and senior consultant for Integralis Thomas Skora said the app was "only for technical demonstration" to show how data could be swiped from contactless cards, such as PayPass Mastercard and GeldKarte.

Not the first time contactless cards have been proven hackable by security researchers. And thankfully for all your CU's contactless card holders, paycardreader was available for download on Google Play Store and GitHub. Get the full story from SC Magazine.

Financial Regulators Address Cloud Security

In effort to help financial institutions address and understand the risk of cloud computing and avoid outsourcing haphazardly, the US Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has published Outsourced Cloud Computing.

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This resource document stresses the importance of due diligence when shopping cloud service providers. Vendors may be unaware of the regulatory requirements applicable to financial institutions, but the financial institutions are still responsible for the compliance and security of their records and therefore must make sure their providers meet risk-management, compliance, quality-of-service, and cost standards.

Focused on business continuity planning, regulatory and legal compliance, audits, information security, vendor management, and due diligence, this FFIEC resource is an excellent guide for outsourcing cloud services and hammering out your vendor contracts and service-level agreements.

Read the story in CloudTimes and take advantage of this invaluable resource for your CU.

How PDFs can infect your computer via Adobe Reader vulnerabilities [VIDEO]

Read at your own risk...

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Beware of PDFs booby-trapped by cybercriminals which can infect your computer and even potentially enable the attackers to gain access to your corporate network. These PDFs may be sent to victims via spam, or they may be planted on websites where they sit, waiting for unsuspecting visitors to click on them.

These booby-trapped PDFs exploit vulnerabilities in PDF-reading software such as Adobe Reader. The simple act of opening them can initiate automatic downloading of malicious code from the Internet and the decoy PDFs that are displayed cover up the malicious activity.

When was the last time you updated your applications like Adobe Reader with the latest security patches? Watch this video by Chet Wisniewski and see how hackers can leverage PDFs to pwn your computer.

Open source offense could be our best defense against cyberattacks

What corporate and member information does your CU have floating around in Cyberspace and how accessible is it to cybercriminals? Does your IT security team even know?

Image source: imsmartin

A growing IT challenge is how to properly protect an organization’s information systems and assets without draining the budget, but a strong defense doesn't have to be expensive. Don’t get caught up in all the media- and vendor-driven hype around cyberattacks, which caters to human interest over security basics and therefore can be misguiding, often scaring organizations into investing in security programs that might not even be appropriate for their circumstances.

Every organization is unique and so is every security product, so before spending time and money on any of them, your CU should first assess what data and processes it needs to protect and what their vulnerabilities are. Identifying any data that is publically accessible and figuring out how to safeguard it is a great place to start. Such data is readily available to attackers – no matter what security products your CU may be using.

Get the five tips for establishing a strong cyber-offence based on open source information presented by SANS Institute's Director of Research Alan Paller at the recent ISSA Los Angeles Security Summit.

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.

5 Enterpriseworthy Cloud Storage Services

Cloud storage and file sharing services have been emerging at an impressive clip over the past few years.

Image source: Fotopedia

What if you want a secure business solution for your virtual office?

One solution for cloud storage and document management on the list is Ftopia, which allows you to configure a file structure and create branded, secure, tamper-evident, virtual rooms that can be shared with colleagues or clients.

Sit back and relax and let the article take you on a tour of the best cloud storage services for small to midsize businesses such as your own Credit Union. The list contains: Box, Carbonite, Egnyte HybridCloud, Ftopia, and SugarSync.

Federal appeal court raps bank over shoddy online security

A U.S. construction company may stand a greater chance of recovering some of the US$345,000 it lost in fraudulent wire transfers that it blames on poor online banking practices of its bank.

Image source: Flickr

Fraudsters made six wire transfers using the Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer system amounting to more than $588,000 in May 2009. About $243,000 was recovered.

The court found that Ocean Bank was not monitoring its transactions for fraud nor notifying customers before a suspicious transaction was allowed to proceed, both capabilities that it did possess with its security system.

Pay me now or pay me later...Are you doing enough to protect your members and your CU? Read the full article to see what could have been done to alter the outcome.

App Development: Been There Done That

The age of the Internet has created a sense of urgency in the world. There is a strong want for instant gratification.

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People expect news, status updates from friends and feedback on anything and everything instantly. So why should it be any different for mobile Apps?

When creating your own apps, be mindful of the following pitfalls described in this article.

Read the full article to see if your apps are up to snuff.

eHarmony analysis shows people just don’t care about passwords

Trustwave's SpiderLabs has completed an analysis of the passwords dumped on the Internet in this month’s eHarmony breach.

Image source: FR

The results of the analysis reached the depressing conclusion that too few people really seem to care about password strength.

As it was, more than 1.2 million passwords were cracked in 72 hours, using three NVIDIA GPUs and the oclHashcat and John the Ripper cracking tools.

Are these tools being used against your members? Read the full article to learn more.

Operation High Roller Targets Corporate Bank Accounts

Two security firms say a new type of cyberattack is targeting corporate bank accounts.

Image source: Random Squeegee

The attacks began in Europe but have spread to Latin America and the United States.

So far, hackers have attempted to steal at least $78 million in fraudulent transfers from accounts at 60 or more financial institutions.

Read the full article to learn more.

Did ONE high-tech worker bring RBS to its knees?

Was RBS brought to its knees by ONE junior IT technician?

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A junior technician in India caused the RBS computer meltdown which froze millions of British bank accounts, it was claimed.

The ‘inexperienced operative’ erased a massive swathe of information during a routine software upgrade for the Royal Bank of Scotland and its subsidiaries NatWest and Ulster Bank, according to reports.

Read the full article to see if your CU IT staff is up to snuff.

DroidSheep: Android tool for session hijacking

DroidSheep is a simple Android tool for web session hijacking (sidejacking).

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The tool listens for HTTP packets sent via a wireless (802.11) network connection and extracts the session id from these packets in order to reuse them.

The tool's main intention is to demonstrate how EASY it can be, to take over nearly any internet account.

Read the full article and watch the video to see how it works.

Dozens Held in FBI Credit-Card Fraud Sting

The Manhattan District Attorney and the FBI released details of a huge international cybercrime takedown.

Image source: Rude Cactus

The sting, known as Operation Card Shop, was established to thwart criminals from stealing credit or debit card information from the Internet and using the information for fraudulent transactions.

According to a news release, the coordinated action involved 13 countries and resulted in 24 arrests.

Read the full article to learn more about the sting. Were any of your members impacted?

IBM Acquisitions Deliver Storage for the Rest of Us

Beginning in late 2005, IBM recognized the huge potential in the storage market, investing in a big way in storage hardware, software, and other storage infrastructure elements.

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“We made somewhere between 13 and 14 acquisitions between 2006 and 2010,” said IBM systems storage VP, Bob Cancilla. “We wanted to invest more organically, taking some of our own technology from R&D, but at the same time not to be afraid to go out and acquire where it makes sense.”

IBM’s storage portfolio has become extremely comprehensive for all ranges of organizations, including Credit Unions.

IBM is not buying companies and technologies and hoping for the best. Read the full article to see how IBM is bringing storage to the mass market with a vengeance.

Keys to Cloud Success: Security, Flexibility, Reliability and Management Simplicity

During the Dell Storage Forum 2012 in Boston, Brocade Global Solutions Architect Roger Bouchard met with Stu Miniman of Wikibon.org as part of theCube’s conference coverage.

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“In talking to customers about SAN security, it used to be that storage administrators would have their eyes glaze over when asking them about security,” Bouchard said.

Bouchard added that the advent of the cloud model has forced security, networking and storage teams to work closely together to address security, which is an impediment to businesses moving to the cloud, particularly when it comes to data confidentiality.

Read the full article and watch the video to get Bouchard's view on how Fibre can help address cloud security concerns.

Big Data Must Shift from Creativity to Scalability and Reliability

Geoffrey Moore of Mohr Davidow Ventures and author of many books including Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, and Inside the Fault Line, delivered the keynote at the Hadoop Summit 2012.

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In the article, Moore discusses how early media companies, such as Yahoo, which found the Hadoop stack, found the Big Data space, but now the rest of the world is figuring out how and when to start working with Big Data.

In assessing how the market will evolve, Moore said early adopters will start with projects. Those that are successful will get visibility while others will hold off. But as successful use-cases emerge, others will jump in.

Read the full article and watch the video to get Moore's expanded view on Big Data success.

Big Data and the Cloud – Take the Lead or Be Disrupted

Most organizations have successfully tackled structured data collection and some have even overcome some of the challenges associated with structured data analysis.

Image source: Flickr

Unfortunately, the methods used rely on data stores that were built "the old way".

Big Data requires a new look at how we collect and analyze information, and "the true power and incremental value comes from layering on unstructured, contextual information on top of this structured data," claimed Kim Stevenson, Vice President Information Technology Group CIO at Intel. "Bring in the data, assess what’s important, and get out."

Read the full article and watch the video to see how Intel is driving adoption of the Cloud and the use of Big Data.

CHART: Here's How Fast Square Is Growing

Square, the payments startup run by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, is growing payments volume at a runaway clip.

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For Square, payments volume is a very close proxy for revenues: It takes a 2.75% cut of most transactions, which it then splits with Visa, MasterCard, and the banks.

The company has 330 employees at last count. We don't believe it's profitable yet, but at these growth rates—20 percent in the last two months—it could easily make money if it chose to. We think instead it's going to keep spending to acquire small-business customers.

View the full size chart and read more about Square and how it could impact your CU.

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.

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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.

Central logging with open source software

A common thread among many IT/Engineering roles is having the data available, searchable, and visible.

Image source: Atom Smasher

While in the midst of implementing a comprehensive solution, this post is a brain dump and road map for how the author went about it, and why.

Read the full article to see if open source logging is right for your CU.

Woman Who Couldn’t Be Intimidated By Citigroup Wins $31 Million

Sherry Hunt never expected to be a senior manager at a Wall Street bank. She was a country girl, raised in rural Michigan by a dad who taught her to fish and a mom who showed her how to find wild mushrooms.

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In November 2004, Hunt, joined Citigroup (C) Inc. as a vice president in the mortgage unit. It looked like a great career move.

Hunt’s team was responsible for protecting Citigroup from fraud and bad investments. She and her colleagues inspected loans Citi wanted to buy from outside brokers and lenders to see whether they met the bank’s standards.

“All a dishonest person had to do was change the reports to make things look better than they were,” Hunt says. “I wouldn’t play along.” Instead, she took her employer to court -- and won. In August 2011, five months after the meeting with Polkinghorne, Hunt sued Citigroup in Manhattan federal court, accusing its home-loan division of systematically violating U.S. mortgage regulations. Read the full article to learn more.

Arizona Credit Union Hopes New Tech Will Attract Small Businesses

While the ability of credit unions to lure disaffected consumers away from large banks is debatable, Desert Schools Federal Credit Union believes it can use technology to lure small businesses away from the banks they use for transaction processing.

Image source: Facebook

Only 8,500 of its 300,000 members are businesses. To reach a broader range of business clients, the Phoenix-area credit union is planning to implement a web based, centralized payment processing system and broader financial services portal that provides access to payment processing services via any web-connected device.

The CU will also offer a web-based reporting system that provides access to financial and business reports.

What is your Credit Union doing to attract and keep your members? Read the full article to learn more about how this CU is using new technology.

Underbanked, But Not for Long

Financial institutions and tech firms are working to use mobility and analytics tied to prepaid cards to reach underbanked consumers

Image source: Flickr

Financial institutions can spot healthy customers among prepaid users to grow deposits and, eventually, credit and loan accounts.

At the same time, consumers escape the high fees of payday lending and check cashing businesses, a chronic problem that can prevent consumers from establishing a track record that makes them more attractive to banks.

The bottom line: New mobile and data analysis technologies and processes are making it easier to reach underbanked consumers. Read the full article to see how your Credit Union fits in.

Survey Monkey Review for Survey Tool

Survey Monkey is unique in that you do not have to be well versed in the realm of programming and web design in order to create your own custom surveys that you want to distribute among your own members on a frequent basis.

Image source: SBC

To get started, just select which type of survey you want to create and Survey Monkey will walk you through the steps.

Would your credit union benefit from member surveys? Read more about Survey Monkey.

Eight Out of Ten Mobile Banking Apps are Vulnerable to Hacking

Bank transactions over apps on smartphone and tablet platforms are growing increasingly dangerous as most of them are really weak to fight any hacking attempts, say security experts.

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Identity theft has become a serious menace where it is overtaking all other crimes together.

Advice from the article: online banking customers should keep a cheap netbook exclusively for their online banking activity where emails aren't opened and other free apps aren't run.

Is this advice suitable to your credit union members? Read the full article here.

RSA SecurID software token cloning: a new how-to

This attack bypasses protections built in RSA's 2-factor authentication system.

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The RSA seed value is easy to obtain and copy by anyone with access to a computer that's lost, stolen, or has been compromised with a backdoor trojan.

Are you blindly trusting your RSA tokens? Read the article to find out. Or are you using GuardTime keyless signatures to prove they have not been compromised?

How long would it take to crack your password? [VIDEO]

Traditional syntax laws make up the typical password policy creations most organizations use and that many security practitioners preach...and that many hackers know.

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Additionally, regular password changes actually decrease security, for a few reasons: 1) your poor users are going to start using sucky passwords because they're easy to remember and to increment, and 2) doing something security-related on a regular, predictable schedule (quarterly? monthly?) is a gift to hackers.

The idea that passwords are going away is nuts. And if two-factor authentication isn't going to save us, what's the answer?

Go to the article to watch the video and to find out more about passwords and the options credit unions have to protect their valuable assets.

Instant decryption of MS Office 2010 documents now possible

Until now, there had been no solution available commercially to crack MS Office 2007-2010 encryption in predictable time.

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This just changed. The latest version of Passware Kit Forensic includes live memory acquisition over FireWire and subsequent recovery of a file's encryption key – regardless of the password length and complexity.

These new tool enhancements may draw concerns from IT security professionals who wonder what effective encryption methods remain.

Does this create a cause for concern for your credit union? Read the article to learn more about the tool and its uses.

Are CUs Behind the Tech Evolutionary 8 Ball?

Several interlocking pieces to this puzzle can help CUs get invited rather than be perceived as an afterthought

Image source: Flickr

The dinosaurs didn’t have the brains or the tools to see it coming, but credit unions do. Still, CUs are under a serious threat as financial delivery services evolve rapidly, and some credit unions aren’t even at the table.

As one example, the U.S. in general is behind its global counterparts when it comes to technology such as chip and PIN and mobile banking.

Is your credit union behind the 8 ball? Read more to find out.

The Unseen Security Dangers in Financial Web Sites

Millions of identities, credit card numbers and user login credentials are still being compromised every year by hackers getting into web sites we believe are secure.

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Even a so-called brochure web site, the kind customers visit for information, blog entries, CD and Money Market rates but not necessarily personal financial transactions, are at risk; many of these provide links to sites that process actual transactions, which makes them vulnerable.

Make no mistake: If your credit union has a brochure web site, it is very likely a potential security risk.

What makes you think your credit union's web site is truly secure? Read the article to learn more.

OWASP is another fantastic resource for secure web development. Be sure to visit them as well.

Understanding the Challenges and Opportunities of Big Data

At its most basic, Big Data is an umbrella term for any pro-active use of available data for the purposes of improving services and member satisfaction.

Image source: Flikr

Many credit unions are finding that a high percentage of BI now resides outside the structured environment.

Assuming the technical challenges can be overcome and the underlying Big Data supporting the credit union's information resource is reliable, then we can start to crunch the available information.

It’s important to understand here that this information is not only useful for understanding the current situation. How well does your credit union grasp its big data?

What Are You Sharing with Dropbox?

Dropbox is a well-known online service which allows you to share files between computers.

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If your files are available via HTTP(S), this means that anybody can access them. We just have to guess valid URLs. Where can we find plenty of existing URLs? In search engines of course!

Keep in mind that shared files can be read by anybody! This feature must be used with due care and attention.

If you really need to share sensitive data, encrypt the files! You should also consider looking at secure cloud file sharing options such as ftopia.

Learn more about the Dropbox reconnaissance performed.

10 Ways to Handle Insider Threats

Close to 50% of all companies have been hit by insider attacks, according to a recent study by Carnegie Mellon’s CERT Insider Threat Center.

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The result of leaner departments means that there are often fewer employees to notice when someone is doing something wrong.

There is no approach that will guarantee a complete defense against insider attacks. But this doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

A good program involves establishing protections beforehand and then implementing Guardtime Keyless Signatures to prove that insider attacks have (or haven't) taken place.

Read the 10 tips to better handle insider threats.

Member satisfaction surveys: Building a business case

The pressure to improve member satisfaction is as high as ever.

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With so much competition for members today, the answer to the question "to survey or not to survey" has to be, "yes." Satisfied members are more loyal, spend more, and cost less to maintain. Post-call surveys represent the most reliable way of assessing real satisfaction, and these survey results will be vital when it comes to making changes to the way companies interact with members.

Does your credit union use surveys to manage member satisfaction? How about your own internal customers from an IT perspective? Read more about using surveys to gauge and improve member satisfaction.

How Malicious Code Can Run in Microsoft Office Documents

One of the most effective methods of compromising computer security, especially as part of a targeted attack, involves emailing the victim a malicious Microsoft Office document.

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Common areas of weakness to watch out for include unpatched MS Office vulnerabilities, VBA macros, embedded Flash programs, and embedded JavaScript.

Intruders use the above techniques to execute code in Microsoft Office documents to compromise the system.

Read the article to learn more about the techniques.

Are security basics getting lost under the cover of cloud and mobile?

Few would argue that the major themes at the recently wrapped RSA Conference 2012 in San Francisco were cloud, mobile and Big Data.

Image source: imsmartin consulting

This should come as no surprise as they are currently the hottest areas of technology.

Even so, the current vendor messaging begs the question: Are we missing the mark on security basics by focusing so much on emerging technologies?

How well does your credit union follow security basics? Do you do enough?

Technology May Be Home Lending Equalizer

The familiar process of having members fax or otherwise deliver documents to their credit union’s loan officer over a period of days or weeks is no longer acceptable to many consumers.

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Remember, just having the best technology is not going to be enough.

Credit unions that want to remain competitive in housing finance over the next decade will likely have to confront the issue of how to add technology to their mortgage loan origination systems.

How does your credit union stack up?

Hackers break into bitcoin exchange, steal $90,000 in bitcoins

Bitcoin exchange suspended its Bitcoinica site operations after hackers managed to steal 18,547 bitcoins -- valued at about $90,000 -- from its online wallet.

Image source: FreeFoto

Security breaches at bitcoin exchanges don't only affect the users of those exchanges, but the entire bitcoin community, because they negatively affect the value of the virtual currency.

The compromised user information can be used to launch phishing attacks against banking and credit union customers, as has happened in the past after many data breaches that exposed user email addresses.

The article suggests Bitcoin exchanges need code reviews, vulnerability assessments and Web application firewalls. How does your security stack up? Read more to see if you've missed a key security element.

Global Payments Breach Fueled Prepaid Card Fraud

Debit card accounts stolen in a recent hacker break-in at card processor Global Payments have been showing up in fraud incidents.

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Union Savings Bank began seeing an unusual pattern of fraud on a dozen or so debit cards it had issued, noting that most of the cards had recently been used in the same cafe at a nearby private school.

USB officials say the bank has suffered approximately $75,000 in fraudulent charges, and that it has so far spent close to $10,000 reissuing customer cards.

Can crooks encode card numbers and expiration dates onto your CU's cards? Read more to see how they are doing it.

Hackers Blackmail Belgian Bank With Threats to Publish Customer Data

What's worse - cybercriminals breaking into your credit union's systems and stealing your members' confidential information, or being told by your attackers that you must cough up €150,000 if you don't want this member data to be published?

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Just this week Belgian credit provider Elantis faced both. Claiming that the compromised data was unencrypted and unsafely stored, the hackers told Elantis that "while this could be called 'blackmail,' we prefer to think of it as an 'idiot tax' for leaving confidential data unprotected on a Web server."

The attack is now being investigated by the Belgian Federal High Tech Crime Unit and the outcome remains to be seen. In the meantime, lesson to be learned. There's no excuse for not properly securing and safeguarding your members' confidential data.

Are your members protected from such a breach? Read more.

Commercial enterprises are putting our critical infrastructure at risk

Cybercriminals have already figured out how to hack into enterprise infrastructure, and the critical infrastructure that controls our nation’s supply of money, water, gas, oil and electricity just might be next.

Image source: imsmartin consulting

Each day brings media attention to yet another breach, but it seems we are unable to make headway on the security front.

But what we should be most concerned about is that our two infrastructures — the private/commercial/enterprise infrastructure and the critical/industrial/utility infrastructure — are interconnected in many ways, and security weaknesses within either therefore put both at risk.

We know bad things can happen but we are not doing enough about it. What's your credit union's relationship with other entities? Read the article to learn more.

Emailed my bank saying I find their website very difficult to use. They refuse to fix any problems, but gave me £60.

The general idea behind online banking is convenience, and for most people, this includes ease of use.

Image source: Twitter post

Interestingly, a disappointed online customer sends and email to her bank describing her difficulties in using the bank's web services, and in response to her concerns, rather than hearing about possible solutions, she is instead told that the bank has no plans to upgrade the site and is issued a £60 credit to her account. She is told that this credit should sufficiently compensate her for the troubles she has been experiencing.

Does this sound like customer service to you? While issuing a credit to her account is a nice gesture of course, the obstacles that raised this customer's concerns to begin with are still there, and the prospects for improvement look doubtful thus far.

How user-friendly are your credit-union's services? Learn from this customer's Twitter post what you can do to ensure that your members are happy.

How smartphones and tablets are fueling commerce

Smartphones versus tables: which devices are your members using?

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While both smartphones and tablets are being widely used for both in-store and online commerce, the roles of these two types of mobile devices are fairly distinct. A recent Nielsen survey reveals that Smartphones may be more convenient for certain things, while tablets are likely more suited for others.

Check out the results of the survey to learn more about what your members might prefer for their online banking.

Where IT is going: Cloud, mobile, and data

What exactly is "cloud computing"?

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An ambiguous phrase indeed, it has become a catch-all label for a variety of IT trends including mobility, web apps, big data, online collaboration, and so on. For the most part however, "Next Generation IT" approaches cloud computing by breaking it down into three primary categories: cloud, mobile, and data.

Nevertheless, there is no catch-all solution for securing all your systems, processes, and assets when it comes to cloud computing, and similarly, while everything related to cloud computing can pretty much fit into one of these three general categories, the topic of adequate security within each category isn’t so general. The specifics of each technology in use must go into consideration when it comes to defining security standards and practices.

In any case, in order to understand your credit union's security needs for cloud computing, you must first understand the technology you use. Get more insight into the future of IT.

Microsoft's Office Live Small Business closes

Many customers of Microsoft's cloud-hosted email and website hosting suite won't make the deadline to transition to another service.

Image source: Brunning

Microsoft is sticking to its plan to shut down its Office Live Small Business (OLSB) suite of cloud-based services, even though it seems many customers are either unaware of the deadline or are having difficulties migrating.

It's unclear how many OLSB customers remain oblivious to the suite's impending shutdown. OLSB is used primarily for email communications and website hosting.

Does your credit union use this cloud service from Microsoft? Read more to see if you've missed the deadline.

5 Tips For Handling Complaints On Social Media

Social media can amplify your credit union's message. It can also do the same for your members when they have a beef with you.

Image source: Rude Cactus

One important tip is to consider offering particularly upset members the chance to address their issues in a different forum, such as a phone call, email, or feedback survey. Just don't make it inconvenient or difficult to do so. Otherwise, you might be making a tough situation worse.

Some large enterprises are beginning to devote entire teams to interacting with their customers in the social realm; smaller companies such as credit unions rarely have that luxury.

Here's some advice on how your credit union can handle negative customer feedback on social platforms without becoming overwhelmed.

VMware Breached, More Hypervisor Source Code To Come

A hacker revealed stolen VMware source code and documents from Asian defense contractors, promising more disclosures in May.

Vulnerabilities are the main cause for concern in the wake of VMware's confirmation that source code dating to 2003 and 2004 had been publicly released by a hacker.

One hypervisor security worry has been "escape to hypervisor" attacks, which would allow an attacker to escape from a given virtualized machine and potentially access any other virtual machine running on the same server.

VMware is downplaying any security threats that might result from the ESX source code disclosure, promising that VMware would update its customers as it learns more. Read the full article here to find out what might happen next.

5 tips for surviving a cloud outage

2011 was a brutal year for cloud outages, from Amazon's big one in April to dozens of others. The article includes the top 5 steps experts say enterprise IT shops should take to avoid cloud outages from knocking them out.

Image source: Krech

The more mission critical the data and compute resources are, the more protections for resiliency and high availability the customer should put in place.

Despite improvements by cloud providers to minimize future outages, more outages will inevitably happen this year and beyond.

Are you prepared for what 2012 holds? Read the full article here to find out.