Incident Response Plans :: Why Your Organization Needs One!

Author: michael

| Posted: 21-05-2008 | Comments: 0 | Views: 22 | Rating: (53)

(?)

Phishing is an effort on the part of criminals to obtain personal information over the Internet through fraudulent means. These scammers are specifically looking for usernames, passwords, and credit card or bank information. They send email messages or instant messages to their victims, trying to direct them to a fake version of a real website. When people are deceived into entering their sensitive information, the scammer takes their information and can steal their money and identity or commit other fraudulent activities.

Why should financial institutions care about phishing attacks aimed at their customers? There are several reasons. First, phishing is a genuine threat, not only to their customers, but to their company as well. Financial institutions are targeted more often than any other business. It is estimated that over 90% of phishing attacks are aimed at customers of banks and credit card companies. The numbers have been rising, too. In 2006, 2.3 million people were victims; the number increased to 3.6 million in 2007. Of these statistics, smaller institutions are phished more often than larger ones, because they are a more lucrative target due to the expense of adequate security measures.

Banks and other financial companies should have a plan to address the case of a scammer phishing for information. No bank would be able to operate without a plan of escape in the case of a fire. Most banks have a button that alerts the police to a robbery. These situations place the bank in a precarious position-they could quickly escalate to a major emergency. Similarly, if banks do not have an incident response plan, a successful phishing attack could quickly lead to a catastrophe.

Phishing attacks are designed to work quickly. After a person enters his or her information into a website, it only takes minutes for the scammers to use it to their own benefit. Often this will happen automatically-the scammer has an automated withdrawal of information or funds, and the phished website will then redirect the victim back to the real website. In a fire, if there is no organized plan of escape, by the time everyone figures out what to do, it may be too late. The same result is true in a case of phishing: if an employee does not already know how to respond, in the amount of time necessary to find the correct phone numbers to call or the proper procedures to follow, the scammer may already have stolen thousands of dollars and disappeared.

It is a fact that people will talk to others about the bad things that happen in their lives. If several friends say that they have been fooled by phishing from a particular financial institution, others may be more likely to do their business elsewhere. Many community banks rely on customer satisfaction and customer referrals to sustain their existence. If they have even two or three major phishing problems, their very survival may be at stake. For the sake of growing their businesses and staying afloat, financial organizations must do everything possible to protect their customers.

Perhaps the most important reason that banks, credit unions, and other financial establishments should have an incident response plan in place is that they are required by Federal Examiners!

Although many smaller financial institutions may think that, in spite of the good that can come from an incident response plan against phishing attacks, the programs to combat phishing are still too expensive for them. Most of the programs, however, are designed for preventative maintenance. An incident response plan simply requires employees of the financial organization to be educated to recognize warning signs of a phishing attack. If they cannot close the phishing site personally, they need a list of companies and professionals and contact information to enable them to call someone who can shut down the site. Because the effort is so minimal, every financial institution, no matter how big or small, should have an incident response plan.

About The Author

Mr. Gale Yocom is a recognized technology expert and President of the Dallas-based security specialist company Covetrix. For the past ten years his company has provided full service networking and security solutions to government entitities, financial institutions, and commercial businesses across the U.S. Performing security audits, penetration testing and implementation of security controls, he brings a wealth of knowledge and information to Internet security.

Mr. Yocom is known for effectively uncovering weaknesses in institutions security practices and has impressively strengthened the security posture of many financial institutions. Mr. Yocom can be reached by contacting him at gale@covetrix.com or by visiting him on the web at www.covetrix.com

Rate this Article:

Current: 0 / 5 stars - 0 vote(s).

Article Tags: Network-security-training, Network-security-training-videos, Covetrix

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/security-articles/incident-response-plans-why-your-organization-needs-one-421469.html

Print article

Send to friend

Publish this Article

Author feedback

About the Author:

Michael worked as a Marketing Professional he discovered home business marketing potential. Today his advice widely sort for upcoming business vertures.

Submitting articles has become one of the most popular means of generating quality backlinks and targeted traffic to your website. Join us today - It's Free!

Article Comments

Add new Comment

Sophisticated Attacks on Community Financial Institutions Increasing!
By: michael | 22/05/2008 | Security
In today’s high tech world, maintaining the privacy and protection of customers and employees’ information grows more and more difficult particularly for many financial institutions. These days’ scammers are getting bolder and more brazen in their abilities to get personal information from banking customers as they aggressively target the smaller locally owned community financial institutions.

Network Information Security Training
By: Carolina Mosbah | 12/06/2008 | Software
Call center software is the most important segment of any call center. But as the market is full of such software, it creates confusion in the mind of the buyers. To know about the features that will help in making the decision, keep on reading

Know Everything About Information Security
By: Mandira Kumar | 10/07/2008 | Information Technology
An unfortunate offshoot of the boom in IT sector in India has been the increasing instances of hacking in this country. The rise in hacking activity has prompted companies to take serious steps to protect and provide security to valuable data and information from getting, misused, lost or destroyed. To know how to protect the important data, keep on reading...

5 Surefire Tips to Protect Your Computers From Hackers
By: Mandira Kumar | 14/08/2008 | Security
Companies across the world are pulling out all stops to protect their networks from hackers. These networks contain business critical and confidential information and are made up of expensive hardware and software components which are vulnerable to hacking attacks. Companies thus have no option but to fork out huge sums to contain the hacking menace. Read on to know more about hackers and how to protect your systems from them.

Got a Question? Ask.

Ask the community a question about this article:

Q&A Powered by:

Latest Security Articles

Identity Theft and Computer Crimeware: Bots
By: Randy Vezina | 05/09/2008
The term "bot" is for robot. Not the kind of robot you have seen in movies and television shows (does anyone remember 'Lost In Space'?) or the one at the car assembly plant. Bots are now one of the most complex types of crimeware on the Internet and therefore a significant tool for identity theft. Bots are a lot like worms and Trojans, except that they can perform a wide variety of automated tasks on behalf of their master who is usually located far, far away.

Traditional Video Surveillance Vs Networked Video Surveillance
By: NirvanaStyle Editor | 04/09/2008
Now Basic Market Demands are following Basic Market Demands 1. Takes advantage of internet and counts available bandwith and gives you access for your desired location 24x7x365 with Maximum reliability, Systems Should work 24x7x365, Storage Protection. 2. Use existing network infrastructure and reuse existing wiring and cameras for low start-up and operating cost 3. Sensors can be integrated and alerts can be sent. 4. Can do motion base recording and Motion based alerts. 5. Turns Analog Vi

What is a Nvss or Cctv System? What All Parts One Need to Purchase When One Has to Install This System
By: NirvanaStyle Editor | 04/09/2008
The traditional CCTV is also in use but these days networked CCTV or NVSS- that is Networked Video Surveillance Systems are also available for the mid-market and the pricing has come down for such systems so mid size businesses can afford such systems Netwroked CCTV or Networked Video Surveillance System (NVSS) has following components cameras, recorder with storage, additional storage (if needed), monitors, peripherals.

Ie Antivirus Removal – Remove Ie Antivurus Quickly and Easily!
By: Jim Marshall | 03/09/2008
Think your computer has been infected with the dread IE Antivirus. You are not alone, this spyware is one of the most popular and dangerous programs on the net. But fortunately I can show how to remove it in a few minutes.

Cissp Training - the Early Days
By: Shon Harris | 01/09/2008
When I took my CISSP exam, I have taken it the way most people take it – knowing just enough to pass it was my aim, but I was asked to memorize facts, bits and pieces because I did not fully understand them. At the time that I took my CISSP exam, no study guides were available, no books, and no sites for the CISSP exam.

Advantages of Dvr / Nvrs Over Software Only
By: Abigail Hamilton | 01/09/2008
Software-only has become a hot sector of the market with wide appeal. It offers many advantages that IT departments in particular have been waiting for. Users have been frustrated by appliances for all the right reasons — the solutions that are available to them have not been good enough, compatible enough, or affordable enough. However, pressure from customers is combining with media coverage of technological advances to exert pressure on providers to make their systems better, more affordab

Email Management Service Provider UK
By: Cathey Brown | 01/09/2008
Larger organizations still place the responsibility of managing their email systems on already overburdened and under-budgeted IT departments. They provide many service of email management. The best service will always make certain that your email campaigns are protected by the best and latest in anti-spam and delivery technology.

How to Clean an Infected Windows Computer
By: Stuart King | 31/08/2008
An article on how to clean an infected Windows computer from viruses, spyware, malware etc

More from michael

Money Making Machine
By: michael | 15/04/2008 | Home Business
Discover the ease and benefits of money making machine you probably had since many years.

Quick Tips for Affiliate Marketing
By: michael | 08/04/2008 | Shopping
There are a few myths and mistakes that most of the new affiliate marketers are most likely to do.They target the wrong audience. Either in the sense of the audiences' needs or either in geographical targetting. Sometimes they offer different product from the need of the audience. Sometimes they do not configure their ppc well enough to bring in expected traffic.

Life Support Systems Through Cpr Techniques
By: michael | 08/04/2008 | Diseases and Conditions
In today's world of extensive tension and stress, its most recommended to everyone to take some precautions to keep themselves healthy. However, best of the people meet accidents everyday. For an inevitable situation like accidents, we can not take precautions measures but can at least try to prevent the damage as much as possible.

Fast and Reliable Cpr Training by Sostechnologies
By: michael | 27/03/2008 | Health
CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The term cardio refers to the heart, and pulmonary refers to the lungs.

Carbon Copy Pro : the Best Home Business Opportunity Ever
By: michael | 12/03/2008 | Home Business
A do-it-all system which ensures your online income with or without any effort on your part

Easiest Way to Make Millions Using Ccpro
By: michael | 11/03/2008 | Home Business
Earn millions for bucks right from your home, using this ultimate marketing system called CCPro.

Make Real Estate Into Profitable Business Using Ccpro
By: michael | 11/03/2008 | Management
Use this ultimate tool to turn your existing Real Estate Business into a profitable business.

Article Categories

Article Marketing

Article Notepad

Stop Duplicate Content

Term Papers

Follow ArticlesBase at http://twitter.com

Need Help?

Sign up for our email newsletter

Receive updates, enter your email below

Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy | User published content is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Copyright © 2005-2008 Free Articles by ArticlesBase.com, All rights reserved. (0.13, 13)

Incident Response Plans :: Why Your Organization Needs One!

Article Comments

Related Articles

Got a Question? Ask.

Latest Security Articles

More from michael

Need Help?

Site Links

Webmasters

Business Info

Sign up for our email newsletter