FFIEC Announces Cybersecurity Preparedness Efforts

FFIEC Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) recently announced a series of initiatives aimed at promoting cybersecurity preparedness for community financial institutions throughout the country. One such initiative is the creation of the Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Working Group, which was launched in June 2013 in order to enhance communication among the FFIEC member agencies and build on existing efforts to strengthen the activities of other interagency and private sector groups. This announcement follows the FFIEC’s May 2013 press release that highlighted an emphasis on cybersecurity awareness. The FFIEC press release described a webinar that the FFIEC provided to 5,000 chief executive officers and senior managers from community financial institutions to raise awareness about the pervasiveness of cyber threats, and introduce new vulnerability and risk-mitigation assessments and regulatory self-assessments of supervisory policies and processes.