Security Watch: Editor's Note

The Security Watch column was created in 2005, at a time when the banking world was coming to grips with many modern fraud trends.

It was the same year that the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council issued online-security guidance that kick-started a flurry of activity in discovering new and unconventional ways of guarding customer data. Banks were seen as more vulnerable to data breaches, although other organizations — the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2006 and the retailer TJX Cos. Inc. in 2007 — quickly became the poster-children of lax security.

The Security Watch column was designed to be "a weekly roundup of news and developments in data security and their impact on the financial services industry," and it ran once a week in print and online.

With American Banker's redesign this year, it shifted to a blog format, which could be updated more frequently. Excerpts from the blog ran in print once a week.

The redesign also created the new Risk Management section, a larger umbrella under which to report stories about the risks banks face, including fraud. Security Watch was placed under this umbrella, and it is now being discontinued to allow us to better focus our attention on building a broader and better risk section.

Our reporting on security topics will remain a prominent part of our coverage and the column's past editions remain accessible online.