PLEASANTON, Calif. Patelco CU, which suffered website downages after two hacker attacks, said this morning it hired a new chief information officer who will be responsible for information technology and information services at the $4 billion credit union.
Kevin Landel has 30 years of experience in media technologies and comes to Patelco from California Coast CU, where he served as senior vice president of information services. In addition to his extensive work experience, including executive roles at technology startups and time at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, Landel has a master’s degree from MIT’s Media Lab and a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
The hiring comes after Patelco CU suffered two separate so-called distributed denial of services attacks, known as DDoS, in February which resulted in its website being down for hours.
The attacks were supposedly launched by a group of Islamist hackers who targeted numerous U.S. financial institutions, including University (of Texas) FCU, Key Bank, M&T Bancorp, People's United Bank, PNC Financial Services Group, Regions Financial Corp., Synovus Financial Corp., UMB Bank, Upqua Bank, Union Bank and Zions Bank.
The hiring comes jut a week after Patelco CU agreed to part ways with its CEO Ken Burns, though the credit union said Burns’ departure is voluntary and was not related to the DDoS attacks.
