SVA's Financial Data Security Expertise Benefits FCCU

THE STORY

Fort Community Credit Union (FCCU) was established in 1940 and has grown into a full service credit union with four branches in Jefferson and Whitewater, WI serving over 17,500 individual and business members.

As with any financial institution, it is the goal and responsibility to protect its members, their confidential data, as well as itself from fraud and security breaches. Fraud has evolved from being committed by casual fraudsters to being committed by organized crime and fraud rings that use sophisticated methods to take over control of accounts. The problem is pronounced in the financial sector where the compromises are more sophisticated than in other industries.  FCCU needed to uncover where any potential weaknesses exist that cyber criminals could potentially use.  

At Fort Community Credit Union, members are their first priority; they take protecting members’ information very seriously. Since financial data is one of the most appealing targets for cyber criminals, Sue Johnson, FCCU President, needed to ensure they had effective safeguards in place. Based on a referral, Sue contacted SVA Consulting. The cybersecurity experts at SVA Consulting use globally recognized industry best practices to assess, analyze and communicate information security vulnerabilities. SVA Consulting performed penetration testing, as well as phishing activities, using tools and techniques that hackers use but doing no harm. SVA Consulting provided FCCU with an assessment report, executive briefing, and the tools that allow them to focus and prioritize their ongoing efforts for financial data security.

Sue worked with SVA Consulting to design a right-sized engagement that launched various simulated attacks designed to uncover weaknesses, validate FCCU’s cyber defenses, and to see if the attempts would be spotted and stopped.  Part of this engagement included technical “Red Team” cyber penetration efforts as well as social engineering to validate FCCU’s security processes and the effectiveness of security awareness training.