Charged with protecting their members from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, today’s credit union information security professionals must navigate a complex web of regulations and implement robust lines of defense.

The most important elements in an effective defense strategy are your people, processes and technology—in other words, your credit union’s organizational culture.

This was the advice given by cybersecurity experts Leo Maduzia, senior vice president at $6.9 billion asset San Diego County Credit Union (SDCCU), and Jim Brahm, CEO of Security Compliance Associates.

They co-presented a breakout session during this week’s CUNA Tech/OpSS Council Conference.

Brahm shared the timely example of an unnamed credit union in Florida recently victimized by a string of social engineering attacks. The fraudsters focused on draining members’ accounts through debit card point-of-sale charges and depositing fraudulent checks via remote deposit capture—to the tune of $500,000 in losses for the credit union per month.

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