Governance & Compliance for Credit Unions

 

With the Central Banks expectations for Credit Unions regarding good IT Governance and Risk Management increasing. It is imperative that you have the correct solution in place to ensure you have a robust risk management framework in place.

We provide your credit union with a highly tailored independent third party verification framework to ensure your compliance to central bank regulations by providing you with all key features in the 'IT Security Expectations' as detailed in the 'IT Risk in Credit Unions - Thematic Review Findings'. Find out more about our one stop security framework below.

 

Get in Touch to Learn More About Our One Stop Security Framework for Credit Unions


Secora Consulting's Framework

Secora Consulting have designed a robust, highly tailored independent third party verification framework from the ground up to enable all credit unions to align with the Central Banks IT Security expectations.

Our framework is tailored to each Credit Union, with the development of the policies and processes you need at its core. We enable you to consistently classify all data and assets owned by the credit union by implementing a repeatable process to ensure consistent application of prioritisation throughout. This allows you to effectively prepare for your Central Bank audit by remediating any weaknesses in your security controls and successfully align to all of the central bank's IT Security expectations.

 

IT Inventory Mapping

  • We will compile a complete and thorough register of all assets owned or managed by your credit union. The asset register will contain both hardware, software and assets which are not owned by the credit union but are critical to supporting operations.
  • Our bespoke asset register will also allow you to apply consistent business criticality classification to each of your assets to ensure remediation can be effectively prioritised across the whole credit union.
  • As part of this phase, we will assign asset tags to all assets owned by the credit union to ensure the whole inventory is documented in the asset register.

 

Assessment

  • We will carry out vulnerability assessments to manage and understand risks and uncover weaknesses in your security controls, reducing the risk to your credit union.
  • Our penetration testing is designed to determine the effectiveness of threat detection, helping you manage vulnerabilities while testing IT security controls, processes and procedures to ensure the credit union is effectively reducing risk.
  • We will develop or review your access control matrix to ensure access, authorisation and user roles are recorded correctly across the whole credit union estate (both external and internal) and across all user levels (employees, members, third party suppliers and outsourcing service providers).
  • Using the access control matrix we will test access and authorisation rights against all credit union assets (both internal and external) and users (employees, members, third party suppliers and outsourcing service providers) to ensure that only privileged users can gain access to sensitive data.
  • As the framework cycle progresses, each iteration of the ext assessment phase will validate remediation from the previous cycle to ensure that any remedial efforts have been successfully implemented.
  • As part of our assessment, we will highlight and create a roadmap for decommissioning any legacy systems uncovered.
  • Whenever any new security controls are implemented the next iteration of the assessment phase will validate the controls implemented within the credit union.

 

Reporting to stakeholders

  • We will create or review an IT risk register to describe risks in detail facilitating proactive management. Each risk will be prioritised for remediation using the consistent business criticality classification from the asset register so that risks can be effectively remediated in order of severity and impact.
  • Each report contains an executive summary of issues and a business impact assessment. The executive summary is non-technical and is designed to be read at board level to provide an overview of the security landscape and how any uncovered threats could impact the credit union.
  • Our reports explain the potential operational and business impacts a cyber attack may have on your credit union. They include how any uncovered issues could adversely affect profitability, reputational damage, availability, damage and loss or the reputation of your credit union.
  • Reports include detailed descriptions of each issue uncovered as well as easy to follow advice on how any uncovered issues can be resolved to reduce the overall risk to your credit union. All issues uncovered are ranked against CVSS scores to ensure consistency throughout the engagement.

 

Security awareness training

  • We equip employees with knowledge and skills to identify and prevent IT security threats, ensuring they understand the importance of security to business-critical activities and objectives.
  • We will provide employees with increased awareness of the types of threats that exist to credit unions and how they can manifest themselves.
  • We will deliver an information briefing to the board of directors and senior management on the current global cyber threat landscape, with a focus on the risks specific to Credit Unions. Advice is then provided on a preventative strategy to be undertaken.

 

Benefits of this package

  • A robust, highly tailored independent third party verification framework bespokely designed for your credit union. As each credit union is different, we learn and understand the IT security problems faced within your credit union and tailor the framework to suit your requirements.
  • We provide a one-stop security solution to ensure your security success and alignment to the Central Bank requirements.
  • We will help you develop and maintain a robust cybersecurity posture to provide you with continued success through each iteration of the framework.
  • We will ensure your credit union meets and exceeds IT security regulatory compliance requirements to ensure you pass all your audits.
  • Detailed reports providing non-technical information and remediation guidance.
  • Guarantee effective remediation by applying assets with consistent business criticality to ensure remediation efforts can be prioritised against risk.
  • Verified security controls to protect the personal data of members, third parties, employees and directors.
  • Third-party verification that your policies, processes and IT security controls are effective and will keep you secure.

 

 

What makes Secora Consulting different?

As your trusted security partner, our team brings years of experience in securing high-risk sensitive environments. Using our tailored framework, we will highlight any failing security controls and underlying issues to help protect your systems, reducing overall risk.

We will take the time to listen to your business concerns to ensure we understand your security requirements and problems. Partnering with Secora means your members can rest assured that your credit union's IT security, information and data has been verified by a highly accredited team of security consultants to provide peace of mind ensuring your IT security solution is resilient and robust.

 

Testimonials

 

Secora Consulting are highly knowledgeable cyber security consultants and very easy to work with. The team took the time to understand the needs of Lifford Credit Union and went above and beyond in each step of the process. They happily shared their knowledge in this sector and were understanding of what we required and where potential issues could evolve.

On completing the project, Secora worked through their findings with us and presented a comprehensive and easy to read report that offered further insight into how we can improve our cyber security posture. We highly recommend the team at Secora Consulting to anyone in need of cyber security improvements or reviews within their organisation.

Lifford Credit Union

 

We engaged Secora Consulting this year to conduct internal and external anti-infiltration testing. They worked directly with our Network providers to scope the work required and to set up the dates for the testing. The testing was undertaken quietly with no disruption to service. The report issued was comprehensive and easy to read, unlike previous providers where the report was far too technical to understand. We would recommend Conor and the team at Secora Consulting to anyone seeking external expertise for anti-infiltration testing.

Lucan Credit Union

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