Cybernance and Texas Banking Association Initiative Gauge Bank Cyber Resilience
AUSTIN, TX – November 5, 2019 – Cybernance Corporation, a provider of cyber risk governance technology solutions, today announced that the overall state of cyber resilience in Texas banks is strong. The first-ever benchmark cybersecurity study by Texas Bankers Association (TBA) and Cybernance was conducted to create and implement an assessment of the cybersecurity resilience and maturity of the Texas statewide banking system.
The key result of the study shows that most of the Texas banks have relatively high cybersecurity maturity and resiliency against a cyberbreach. The banks participating in the first study show that they meet or beat the minimum requirements for cybersecurity audits by federal agencies (FFEIC and NIST CSF) that is a critical benchmark for a study of this magnitude. Another key indicator of the study showed the risk profile of the Texas banks is relatively low and very well managed by relying heavily on well-established and secure third-party providers, which is a critical factor in establishing cyber maturity.
“This first-ever benchmark study on Texas banks was critical in understanding how they would fare with a cyberbreach. With a 20% participation rate across a selection of a diverse set of banks across multiple asset classes, we were able to capture a statistically relevant set of banks overall. This study provided a very reliable picture of the level of cyber maturity and resiliency of state banks as a whole,” said Mike Shultz, CEO of Cybernance. “I’m equally pleased that those who did not score well, are working hard to improve their cyber maturity. This is exactly what our product provides to businesses – an ongoing assessment of their cyber resilience and maturity across their process, policy and people.”
The study results also revealed that 100% of Texas banks reported completing the FFIEC CAT on a regular basis, and 88% of Texas banks were at baseline or higher in every category. While bank regulators insist upon baseline for all banks, greater than 25% of banks were considered well above baseline, including the highest levels of security as “advanced” or “innovative” in one or more categories. Further, upon inspection of the banks from an outside or 3rd party system perspective, 95% of the banks received an “A” rating from SecurityScorecard, a Cybernance strategic partner.
Since the release of the study, Cybernance has shared the aggregate and individual results with the participating banks. The banks participating in the study contributed their most recent data from cybersecurity audits by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Cybernance was able to easily import a diverse set of data into the Platform that automates cyber assessments mandated by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC). The data was immediately anonymized to protect the confidentiality from anyone outside the study as well as from other banks.
“Cybernance’s software was an ideal Platform for conducting our cyber benchmarking initiative and providing a benchmark banks could work with to make ongoing improvements,” said Chris Furlow, CEO of TBA. “By using existing data and anonymizing it, we avoided a long and protracted period of manual assessment for each bank. We are delighted to share with each participating member bank an idea of how well they’re doing relative to their peers, something that many had asked for in the past”
The Cybernance Platform is a cyber risk governance application based on national cybersecurity standards. Once the software is configured per customer, usually in less than a day, the automated solution minimizes the time and effort it takes to gauge the customer’s levels of risk and maturity against national standards. The software enabled each bank in the study to quickly and easily leverage their FFIEC CAT results by automatically cross-walking those to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, which will align those banks with some of the nation’s largest and most sophisticated financial institutions. Both FFIEC CAT and NIST CSF are critical standards for banks and other regulated entities.
“TBA looks forward to extending this initiative to other banks in Texas and even outside of Texas,” said Furlow. “While we are heartened with the results, banks must continually incorporate cyber risk management into their operations, and track risk and maturity. The Texas Bankers Association is committed to helping our member banks enhance their audit results, and more importantly, increase their resilience against cyberattacks.”
About Cybernance Corporation
Cybernance is the cyber risk governance platform that regulated industries, public companies, and government agencies rely on to effectively oversee and manage cyber risk. Based on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, the Cybernance Platform is an internal control system that provides deep visibility into the people, processes, and policies within an entire organization so business and agency leaders can easily mitigate and document all cyber risks. With Cybernance, departments work seamlessly together in an online platform that provides company-wide risk reporting through dashboards and a proprietary risk scoring system that gives executives and board members peace of mind and third-party liability protection in the event of cyber terrorist activity. In 2017, Cybernance received the SAFETY Act designation from the Department of Homeland Security, which provides customers the highest form of risk and liability protection from third-party action in the event of a cyber-criminal data breach. Visit www.cybernance.com for more information, and follow Cybernance on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Texas Bankers Association
Founded in 1885, the Texas Bankers Association is a member-centric state organization based in Austin whose members represent the voice of the banking industry within the state and national halls of Austin and Washington, D.C. TBA represents 95 percent of banking institutions of all asset and deposit sizes. Our membership includes small and large institutions holding state and national charters, thrift charters and non-Texas charters with thousands of branches across our state. www.texasbankers.com
CONTACT
Karen Shultz
Brilliant Ideas Group
[email protected]
512-294-3004
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