LONG BEACH, Calif. -
The technologies, such as website and e-mail filters, encryption platforms, USB security, and lobby trackers, "scare the heck out of employees," said Kevin Reed, VP-information systems at $1-billion LBS Financial CU here.
The result: "there's an eventual overall reduction of security incidents, generally speaking," said Reed's colleague, Gary LaForge, assistant vice president, information systems. "The products themselves create a particular mindset among the organization."
It's true that employees under surveillance do better work, according to Devin Redmond, director, Security Products Group at Websense in San Diego. Websense provides web filtering and web and desktop security software.
"Employees who know they are being watched are less likely to do something questionable," Redmond said.
Horizon CU in Farmington, Utah, told Credit Union Journal that it advises employees upfront that all Internet travels are checked by a web filter, which helps to head off the temptation to visit inappropriate or threatening sites, according to Carol Cordon-Allred, information system specialist at the $80-million CU.
Horizon chose the SurfControl web filtering tool in 2000 to automatically block sites that fall into selected categories. SurfControl of Scotts Valley, Calif., provides Internet security products.
For these credit unions, employees and computers with Internet access can be a bad mix in a number of ways: for one, web surfers may visit sites that surreptitiously download spyware and viruses onto the enterprise network.
On top of that, Internet cavorts eat up productivity and bandwidth. "We have a lot of employees working in cubicles where supervisors can't see them," Reed explained. "It's easy to spend a lot of time playing around and wasting bandwidth on MySpace or on instant messaging with friends."
Employees may also transmit sensitive data-accidentally or purposefully-when they send Social Security Numbers, account numbers and member names to the wrong e-mail recipients or download them via USB ports to high-capacity thumb drives.
To address the insider threat, LBS Financial employs the Websense Web Security Suite to block inappropriate and threatening websites, protocols and applications. And the Content Protection Suite allows LBS Financial to control who has access to data as it travels inside and outside the credit union.
The insider threat is this year's biggest security worry at South Western FCU in La Habra, Calif., according to Miriam Neal, vice president, information systems, at the $170-million CU.
"We've always known that most fraud originates internally," and that removable media could make it easy for employees to steal data, Neal said. Stephen Jones, chief technology officer at $250-million Signal Financial FCU in Kensington, Md., agreed: "The gaping hole in the network is the way out.
"An employee can copy data onto a thumb drive and then simply lose it out in the world, where it can fall into the wrong hands," he said. In addition, employees usually respond to member e-mails with a member's original message intact, which often contains names and account numbers, Jones added.
That's why Signal Financial started using the Santa Clara, Calif.-based Code Green Networks solutions in October to identify and protect data against unauthorized disclosure across all leakage points, including SMTP, HTTP, FTP, webmail and portable devices.
South Western FCU started using the Sanctuary Device Control software one year ago to control or block input/output devices through all ports at the credit union. Sanctuary is provided by SecureWave of Herndon, Va.
The Internet and removable media aren't the only channels where employees can go wrong, which is why two years ago Tinker FCU started monitoring member wait times in its 17 branch lobbies. Member service representatives perform at their best when they know wait times are being measured, according to Lisa Leeper, director of branch operations at the $1.4-billion CU on Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.
Tinker uses Lobby Tracking, a Web-based lobby management tool provided by Financial Management Solutions, Inc., that delivers snapshots of lobby activity, such as wait times, member interaction and transaction duration.
FOR MORE RESOURCES
Read more about employee-tracking tools at cujournal.com and search the following bolded terms in the archive:
World (Restricted) Web: Keeping CU Staff On Target for more on Horizon CU's web filtering approach.
How 1 CU Is Ensuring Data Doesn't Leave On Employee Flash Drives And MP3 Players for more on South Western's use of USB security software.
I Want My Branch TV for more on how Tinker FCU tracks teller activity with a lobby management tool.
For info on this story:
* www.lbsfcu.org
* www.myhorizoncu.com
* www.swfcu.org
* www.sfonline.org
* www.tinkerfcu.org
* www.websense.com
* www.surfcontrol.com
* www.codegreennetworks.com
