Just because your community bank isn’t one of the giants of the financial industry doesn’t mean it’s off the target list of today’s proliferating cybercriminals. But that doesn’t mean that community banks with limited resources have to go out and start spending large sums of money on IT and data security, experts agree.
“Focus on getting basic security practices solid before adopting the next shiny gadget that promises better security,” advises Phil VanMeerhaeghe, an IT security expert with Kansas City–based 10-D Security Inc. in Lexena, Kan. “Too many times we see institutions spending a lot of money and effort on complex security wiz-bangs while the most elementary security practices are not followed.”
