ABA Banking Journal
No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
SUBSCRIBE
ABA Banking Journal
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Home Community Banking

Staying One Step Ahead of Cyber Crime

May 21, 2018
Reading Time: 3 mins read

Cybersecurity concept - Open and closed locks with digital fingerprints from an hacker

By Monica C. Meinert

Part 3 in a series. Read Parts 1, 2, 4 and 5.

With each passing year, the number of fraud victims continues to grow, and data breaches have become routine occurrences. The introduction of EMV technology has shifted the fraud landscape to include more instances of card-not-present and online fraud: from 2015 to 2016, card-not-present fraud increased 40 percent and account takeover fraud was up 31 percent, according to Javelin Strategy & Research.

“It’s a big issue,” says Rheo Brouillard, president and CEO of Savings Institute Bank & Trust in Willimantic, Conn. “We track who’s knocking on our door, and it’s amazing to see the number of people who are poking around looking for an easy target. Fortunately, we haven’t been one, but it’s amazing to see how many people are knocking.”

So it’s no surprise that investment in analytics-driven fraud detection systems are up. “This area used to be a blip in the budget,” says Brian Johnson, CEO of Choice Financial Holdings in Grand Fork, N.D. “Now it’s a significant commitment in resources, both in technology and people.”

Banks are focusing their efforts on both building up both vigilant infrastructure systems and strong internal fraud cultures. Respondents to a recent ABA Community Bankers Council survey of bank CEOs said that their banks are fighting fraud by training staff (95 percent), upgrading network security systems (91 percent), and using anti-malware or anti-virus software (81) percent to better protect their banks against cyberattacks and data breaches.

They’re also being proactive on the customer side as well, with 84 percent providing customer education on fraud-related topics. In addition, 73 percent already offering identity theft protection and 28 percent planning to add it in 2018. For banks that offer identity protection to their customers, adoption has been high, especially since many banks are offering it at no cost.

FMS Bank in Fort Morgan, Colo., offers free identity theft resolutions services to all personal checking accountholders and their resident family members. Powered by CyberScout (which ABA endorses for data breach preparation and response services), the service gives identity theft victims access to on-call fraud specialists to help recover up to $25,000 in losses, in addition to a full year of free credit and fraud monitoring. For a small monthly fee, customers can sign up for continuous monitoring to receive early warnings of suspicious credit and fraud activity.

The bank’s debit product also has a remote “on/off” capability that customers can control through a mobile app. “You can walk out of Walmart and turn off your debit card after you’ve checked the balance,” says FMS Bank President and CEO John Sneed. “We are just in the process of rolling these security features out to our customers.”

Similarly, American Community Bank and Trust in the Chicago area rolled out a popular, free debit card management feature tied to customers’ cell phones. The bank also offers “Positive Pay,” an automated fraud detection tool for business checking accounts. This service ensures that funds are not released from the account unless the transaction presented for payment exactly matches a customer-provided, electronic whitelist.

Another way banks can protect their customers is to join Sheltered Harbor—an industry-led initiative designed to add an additional layer of protection to banks’ business continuity and disaster recovery efforts. By storing data in a Sheltered Harbor standard format, a peer bank or processor has the ability to recover the data in the event it is compromised or erased, allowing banks to continue to serve their customers even in the face of a crippling cyberattack.

“Strong cyber protection is critical to any bank’s survival,” says ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols in a recent video urging bankers to become “Sheltered Harbor Ready.” “Sheltered Harbor is a win-win for your reputation, the industry’s reputation, and most importantly, for your customers. But it only works if we all do our part.”

ADVERTISEMENT
Tags: CybersecurityDebit cardsFraudMobile banking
ShareTweetPin

Author

Monica C. Meinert

Monica C. Meinert

Monica C. Meinert is a senior editor at the ABA Banking Journal and VP for executive communications at the American Bankers Association.

Related Posts

ABA, associations urge lawmakers to finalize deal on debt ceiling

House passes bills on stablecoins, digital assets, CBDCs

Cybersecurity
July 17, 2025

The House voted in favor of two bills to create a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins and digital assets. House members also voted in favor of a separate bill to ban the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC.

The future of careers in risk and compliance

The future of careers in risk and compliance

ABA Banking Journal Podcast
July 17, 2025

What does the future hold for bank risk and compliance professionals? Krysti Cunningham discusses the technological transformation in risk and compliance at community and midsize banks and applications for AI tools and LLMs in risk and compliance.

BIS: Stablecoins fail as ‘sound money’

ABA urges lawmakers to include safeguards in stablecoin bill

Compliance and Risk
July 17, 2025

A durable regulatory framework for stablecoins must balance the potential for enhancing payments with the need to limit negative economic consequences, promote financial stability and guard against consumer protection risks, ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols said in...

ABA urges FCC to combat illegal call spoofing

ABA urges FCC to impose call authentication requirement for non-IP networks, mandate IP transition

Compliance and Risk
July 16, 2025

ABA joined six trade associations in urging the FCC to adopt a proposal to create a new call authentication requirement designed to limit criminal access to the U.S. calling network.

ABA faults banking regulators for confusing CRA rule rollout

Banking agencies propose to rescind Community Reinvestment Act rule

Community Banking
July 16, 2025

The Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC issued a joint proposal to rescind the Community Reinvestment Act final rule adopted in 2023.

OCC sees need for regulatory reform in bank merger process

Bank acquisitions announced in three states

Community Banking
July 16, 2025

Huntington Bancshares, First Community and Civista Bancshares announce planned acquisitions in Texas, Georgia and Ohio.

NEWSBYTES

House passes bills on stablecoins, digital assets, CBDCs

July 17, 2025

Business inventories hold steady in May

July 17, 2025

Mortgage rates rise

July 17, 2025

SPONSORED CONTENT

Navigating Disruption in Ag Lending – Why Tariffs Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Navigating Disruption in Ag Lending – Why Tariffs Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg

July 1, 2025
AI Compliance and Regulation: What Financial Institutions Need to Know

Unlocking Deposit Growth: How Financial Institutions Can Activate Data for Precision Cross-Sell

June 1, 2025
Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

April 25, 2025
Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

April 5, 2025

PODCASTS

The future of careers in risk and compliance

July 17, 2025

Breaking down the bank-related provisions in the big budget bill

July 10, 2025

Podcast: Inside ABA’s new Treasury Check Verification System API

June 25, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT

American Bankers Association
1333 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
1-800-BANKERS (800-226-5377)
www.aba.com
About ABA
Privacy Policy
Contact ABA

ABA Banking Journal
About ABA Banking Journal
Media Kit
Advertising
Subscribe

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.