CoNetrix

Blog: Credit Union

Many organizations are adopting Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) and businesses nationwide are seeing the benefits of improved productivity through its email and collaboration solution. Organizations of all sizes can benefit from a seamless user experience between mobile and on-premise environments.

While Microsoft 365 offers great flexibility, it mostly focuses on infrastructure management rather than data management. Meaning: You are responsible for your data.

Some businesses who have migrated their workloads to Microsoft 365 do not realize that the same reasons they had for backing up and protecting that data on-premises applies even in the cloud.

If you are still considering Microsoft 365 for office productivity and collaboration, this article may be for you: Microsoft 365: Is it the right choice for your business?

Without proper backup and recovery, your data is at risk, because Microsoft isn't providing complete protection. It's important to create a backup and recovery strategy to ensure you avoid permanently losing your critical data.

It's important to understand the difference in responsibilities of Microsoft and Microsoft 365 user organizations. Microsoft hosts the infrastructure, but you are responsible for your data.

What is Microsoft's Responsibility?

Cloud Infrastructure Uptime — Microsoft focuses on the infrastructure management rather than data management. By focusing on infrastructure, Microsoft ensures its cloud service is online and operational. Guaranteed uptime is based on your agreement level and outlined in the availability SLA (Service Level Agreement).

Basic Data Replication — Microsoft provides basic data replication with datacenter-to-datacenter geo redundancy, and limited retention for short-time data recovery.

Data Processing Compliance — Compliance and controls for data processing are limited to the processor, not the data itself. Microsoft ensures data privacy, regulatory controls, and industry certifications for compliance are in place and maintained for the infrastructure of its cloud service.

Physical Infrastructure Security — Security functions for Microsoft 365 are limited to physical infrastructure, not data. It includes app-level security, logical security, and access controls for users and administrators.

What is the Customer's Responsibility?

Business Data in Microsoft 365 — The customer is the owner of the data that resides in the Microsoft 365 data centers. As the owner, the customer controls the data and who can access the data. All responsibility of the data is on the user to ensure data security, privacy, and retention.

Enterprise-grade Backup and Long-Term Data Retention — Implementing an enterprise-grade backup solution for Microsoft 365 can give businesses confidence to recover from security breaches, compliance exposure, and data loss. With enterprise-grade backup, a copy of the data is stored outside the environment. In the event of an incident, it provides granular and point-in-time recovery options.

Data Owner Compliance — As the data owner, the customer has the ultimate responsibility of data for internal legal and compliance teams. The customer answers to the demands from corporate and industry regulations.

Security Functions to Protect Data — Protection of data is the responsibility of the user, not Microsoft. Security controls must be implemented to protect the data from internal threats, such as accidental deletion, insider threat, and disgruntled employees, and external threats, such as malware, ransomware, and rogue applications.

What happens when Microsoft 365 is used without backup?

Microsoft only provides basic and limited retention. If you don't implement a backup strategy outside of Microsoft's native capabilities, you are opening up your business for unnecessary risk. Lack of a Microsoft 365 backup plan is a risky data strategy.

Without proper backup and recovery, your organization can expose itself to the following risks:

  • Data loss from accidental deletions
  • Ransomware attacks and security breaches
  • Insufficient retention time for regulatory compliance policies
  • Lack of data control due to potential SaaS lock-in

Organizations investing in productivity and collaboration tools should also consider their backup and retention needs as a factor in efficiency and productivity. Considering a third-party backup solution is critical for data loss avoidance.

What is the best strategy for Microsoft 365 backup?

Your data is your business. By taking a data-driven approach to your backup strategy, you recognize the critical importance of your data for your business stability.

Make Microsoft 365 Backup a Key Priority

Backup for cloud services (SaaS), such as Microsoft 365, is imperative for security and data control. Full oversight and control of data is a boardroom priority. Without backup, organizations do not have an exit strategy or freedom from SaaS lock-in because they are not in complete control of their data. Backup should be part of the conversation when buying SaaS and not an afterthought.

Consider Enterprise-grade Data Protection

When investing in backup solutions, consider integration between the Microsoft 365 environment and your existing data protection environment. Evaluate automation, security, and integration between systems when comparing enterprise-grade data protection and recovery features. Integrating SaaS into enterprise data protection can help unify data management.

What to look for in a Microsoft 365 backup solution

1) Freedom to use existing on-premise capacity for Microsoft 365 backup, or the ability to leverage another cloud for cloud backup.
2) Basic features provided, such as incremental backups, granular recovery, automation, and policy-based retention capabilities.
3) A solution capable of managing and protecting hybrid deployments and the ability to ease the full adoption of SaaS.
4) Integration between Microsoft 365 and the customer's existing data protection environment.
5) Advanced security features such as access control, SaaS usage metrics, and multifactor authentication for additional security.
6) Ability to scale up or down as business and data demand changes and as SaaS is rolled out more widely within the company.


Investing in productivity tools and the corresponding backup is an exciting adventure. When you are ready for a guide, we are here to help. We can advise on and implement a solution that fits your business needs. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.

Financial Institutions, General, Networking, Security and Compliance, Backup, Recovery, Information Security Program, Microsoft, Exchange, Financial Institution, Credit Union, Microsoft Office, Cybersecurity, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365, backup, Exchange Web Services,
 

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CoNetrix recently assisted two customers with targeted phishing attacks in which the attackers attempted to redirect wire transfers. This activity is not new, however, some of the tactics utilized in the attack are noteworthy and provide insight into how organizations can better protect themselves.

How did the attackers gain entry into corporate accounts? 

The entry point for the attackers was corporate email accounts that were exposed to the Internet and accessed using a web browser. The email accounts of the victims were compromised by guessing passwords or reusing previously-compromised passwords. Once access was gained to the email accounts, mailbox rules were configured to direct emails about wire transfers to the "RSS Feeds" folder. This effectively hid the email messages from the victim, while allowing the attacker access to them.

Next, the attacker sent email messages from a domain name similar to the domain name of the compromised email account. The fake messages said the previous email messages concerning money transfers were in error and provided different destination bank routing and account numbers where the money would be accessible by the attackers.

Take steps to mitigate the risks of phishing attacks 

In these cases, the fraudulent email messages were noticed by the recipients and the attacks failed. However, these attacks are routinely successful, and it is necessary to take steps to mitigate the risk, especially when corporate email accounts are accessible using a web browser (e.g. Office 365, Outlook Web Access (OWA), cloud-hosted email, any email account that can be logged into using a web browser and public Internet access).

  • Review your organization's email services to see if Internet-facing email access is enabled. One way to do this is to ask the question, "can we log in to our email accounts using a web browser from any Internet connection (e.g. a coffee shop, at home, at a hotel)?"
  • If Internet-facing email access is enabled disable access for employees who do not need it.
  • For employees who need Internet-facing email access, enable dual-factor authentication.
  • Look for inbox forwarding or redirect rule changes. Logging for these changes can be enabled in the email system's administrative console.
  • On firewall or intrusion prevention devices, enable rules to block traffic that is sourced from countries where known malicious traffic originates.
  • Utilize security event monitoring technologies to monitor web server logs for abnormal login activity.
  • Do not rely solely on email or other electronic communications for initiating or modifying financial transactions. Implement out-of-band approval procedures such that financial transactions and changes to financial processes must be verified using a different form of communication. For example, if a request to change a receiving bank account number is initiated via email, it must be verified via a phone call to a number that is already on file.

 

Financial Institution, Credit Union, Fraudulent Emails, Phishing, Security Awareness, Phishing Attacks,
 

Cybersecurity budgets for financial institutions are continuing to increase in an effort to keep pace with advances in technology. CoNetrix conducted a survey to gain insights into cybersecurity and how institutions are using their funds to support their cybersecurity program. 

Cybersecurity Budget for Financial Institutions

Here is some of the information you will find in the report concerning IT and Cybersecurity budgets for financial institutions.

  • 52% of all respondents indicated their IT budget for 2019 will exceed the allotted amount for 2018.
  • 31% reported they will neither increase nor decrease their IT budget for 2019.
  • Institutions with a larger asset size are more likely to increase their IT budget in 2019.
  • 52% of respondents reported they plan to increase Network Infrastructure making it one of the top priorities in 2019.
  • 41% of financial institutions will be increasing their cybersecurity budget in 2019.
  • 44% will maintain the same cybersecurity budget.
  • Institutions with higher confidence in their Board's understanding of cybersecurity posture results in a higher likelihood the budget will increase.
  • 66% of institutions have a shared budget with IT with no designated line item for cybersecurity.
  • 19% have a shared budget with IT with a designated line item for cybersecurity.

Find out more about how institutions are managing their IT and Cybersecurity budget by downloading our report on The State of Cybersecurity in the Financial Institution Industry. https://conetrix.com/cyber-report

Bank, Credit Union, Budget, Financial Institutions, Cyb, IT,
 

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Early this year the tech world was rocked with the announcement of two unprecedented vulnerabilities named Meltdown and Spectre.

These two vulnerabilities are a big deal because they are hardware vulnerabilities affecting any device with a silicon chip. This includes microprocessors on workstations and servers, mobile phones, tablets, cloud services, and other platforms.

Understandably there was a rush from three main industries, processor companies, operating system companies, and cloud providers to provide solutions. However, as a result of the urgent response, there were unanticipated update incompatibilities which crashed systems. This created a dilemma for IT professionals. "Do we install updates which may cause our systems to crash?" or "Do we sit-tight and remain vulnerable?"

Even in the weeks of uncertainty, there were calm voices of seasoned reasoning. Their message reminded us that basic security standards remain our first line of defense. No matter how bad an exploit may be, its impact can be limited if:

  • The vulnerability doesn't have access to your systems
  • Operating system or application weaknesses are patched
  • Security software is installed (advanced end-point protection software with artificial intelligence is a game changer)

So how do you do achieve these standards? Here are some fundamental best practices:

  1. Monitor availability of operating system and application updates. Be sure you find and establish good sources to inform you about the patches and updates for your systems and applications. Then, monitor the sources or subscribe to notifications.

  2. Test updates to ensure compatibility. It is best if your update and patching process includes a test environment where non-production systems are updated first in order to test functionality and compatibility. This allows you to postpone or avoid updates which might crash systems or applications.

  3. Apply updates and patches on a regular schedule. As a best practice, you should implement a schedule (at least monthly) to evaluate, test and install updates for systems and critical applications. In this way, your schedule can coincide with schedules of operating system and application vendors (e.g., Microsoft has "Patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of each month).

  4. Install and maintain security software (e.g., antivirus software, endpoint security software, etc.). If possible, explore and utilize behavior based end-point protection software. This genre of software "watches" system behavior to notice and stop suspicious action.

  5. Prevent malicious code execution. The goal is to keep malicious code out of your network and systems. This is best accomplished with layers of security including Internet filtering, phishing detection, and security awareness training for system users. Security awareness is essential to help prevent users from falling prey to malicious emails.
Financial Institutions, Security and Compliance, Bank, Financial Institution, Credit Union, Cybersecurity, Physical Security, info sec, Information Security,
 

Yesterday, during a webinar titled "Cybersecurity - The Basics", the NCUA provided information on a new Fraud and Cyber Security Initiative grant of up to $7,500 for low-income designated (LID) credit unions.[more] The grant, which must be applied for by June 30, 2015, is designed to help LID credit unions with building and enhancing cyber security to help protect member information.

In order to assist credit unions with their information and cyber security needs, CoNetrix has created a webpage with information about the grant, including a few bundled offerings centered on cyber security.  Additionally, CoNetrix is sponsoring several free webinars to educate about the grant and our offerings.  You can register for the webinars and learn more at www.conetrix.com/ncuagrant/  

Security and Compliance, Credit Union, Risk Assessment, Grant, Penetration Test, NCUA, Vulnerability Assessment,
 

This month, the New York State Department of Financial Services ("the Department") released results from a survey conducted in 2013 on cyber security.  154 institutions completed the survey, representing 60 community and regional banks, 12 credit unions, and 82 foreign branches and agencies.  The survey asked questions regarding information security framework; corporate governance around cyber security; use and frequency of penetration testing and results; budget and costs associated with cyber security; the frequency, nature, cost of, and response to cyber security breaches; and future plans on cyber security. [more]

In conclusion, the Department states:

"As part of its continuing efforts in this area, the Department plans to expand its IT examination procedures to focus more fully on cyber security.  The revised examination procedures will include additional questions in the areas of IT management and governance, incident response and event management, access controls, network security, vendor management, and disaster recovery.  The revised procedures are intended to take a holistic view of an institution's cyber readiness and will be tailored to reflect each institution's unique risk profile.  The Department believes this approach will foster smarter, stronger cyber security programs that reflect the diversity of New York's financial services industry."

This report comes on the hills of the FFIEC webinar, Executive Leadership of Cybersecurity: What Today's CEO Needs to Know About the Threats They Don't See in which the FFIEC introduced expectations of new examination procedures.

To read the full Report on Cyber Security in the Banking Sector by the New York State Department of Financial Services can be found here - http://www.dfs.ny.gov/about/press2014/pr140505_cyber_security.pdf

Security and Compliance, New York, Bank, Credit Union, Cybersecurity, FFIEC,