Mark Your Calendars: IBA IT Security Conference

Mark your calendars!

The Indiana Bankers Association has scheduled their annual Information Technology (IT) Security Conference for 2010.   This year’s conference is scheduled for October 13th and 14th.   Details of that event will be coming soon, once they are finalized.   But for now, you can mark your calendars and plan on attending!!

For your reference, here’s the Indiana Bankers Association’s report from last year’s event:

IT Security Conference Helps Attendees Lessen Future Risk

Laurie A. Rees, Vice President-Education & Training, Indiana Bankers Association (December 2009)

The second annual IT Security Conference, presented by the Indiana Bankers Association and Community Bankers Association of Ohio, was held Oct. 21 and 22 at the Grand Victoria Resort & Casino in Rising Sun. The conference provided an opportunity for bankers to network with other information technology security officers, while learning from industry experts.

Dan Hadaway, managing partner of Infotex Inc., a preferred service provider of the IBA, opened the event with a reminder to take a team approach to information security. He encouraged attendees to network for future planning, auditing, remediation and response processes.

Other presenters included Karl Fox, founding partner of Lithik Systems Inc., who addressed new attack methods, including social engineering and “drive-by hacks.” The next presentation, “Hack Attack Live,” by Matt Jonkman, president of Emerging Threats, continued the theme of vigilance.

Dr. Eugene Spafford, professor at Purdue University, CERIAS,* intentionally presented without PowerPoint to illustrate that new technology is not always needed. Steve Romig, associate director, Ohio State University, shared examples of spam and phishing.

Cindy Krumanaker, First Federal Savings Bank, Huntington; Dennis Teague, MainSource Bank, Greensburg; Gary Kern, MutualBank, Muncie; Al Fullerton, First Bank Richmond, NA; and Robert Michels, The First National Bank of Dennison, Ohio, participated in a business continuity panel discussion. Various approaches were examined, and the panel concluded that the planning process needs to involve management team members from several areas of the bank.

Lee Wetherington of ProfitStars,® a division of Jack Henry & Associates Inc., emphasized the need to fully understanding future technologies such as mobile banking. He pointed out that, with the advent of smart phones, online banking is exposed to the risks of mobile banking.

A regulator panel with representatives of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Thrift Supervision, Federal Reserve Bank and Indiana Department of Financial Institutions answered anonymous questions posed through panel facilitator Dan Hadaway. Each examiner discussed what he or she considered important in the examination process and addressed the question, “How do we prepare for exams?” Key points made by the examiners were the need for banks to focus on risk assessment, and the importance of providing awareness training at all levels of the bank—board, management team, technology staff, general users and customers.

The conference was a success, and IBA is eager to offer it again next year.