Blackstone Valley Xpress August 27, 2021

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2 Blackstone Valley Xpress • www.blackstonevalleyxpress.com • August 27, 2021
RANSOMWARE
Continued
It is indeed a worrisome
situation but one that is being
addressed vigorously here in
the Blackstone Valley.
“We dedicate a significant
amount of resources to managing
this area and [to keeping]
customers’ information
and money safe,” John T.
Latino Jr., vice president
and chief operating officer
of Millbury National Bank,
said. “Larger banks can be a
target because of the quantity
of information and accounts
they have, but small
banks can be just as vulnerable,
if not more vulnerable,
because of the often false
perception that our systems
are not as robust as larger
banks/companies.”
Organizations and firms
that want to protect themselves
had better watch
out, for several reasons, Accenture
says. For starters,
Accenture points out, “the
first months of 2021 targeted
critical infrastructure and
upstream providers, such
89 Southbridge St.
Auburn, MA
(across from Sword St.)
as data-rich insurance companies.”
Even before that, in
2020, one ransomware “negotiator”
reported “multiple
cases in which data was
destroyed rather than just
encrypted, preventing data
retrieval even after ransom
payment.” Then there are
the new “exposure tactics”
being employed. These
have gathered speed, compounding
data-leak damage
and adding “reputation
damage” to “victim liability
lists.” Also, ransomware operators
are using “tooling
and hands-on keyboard actions
to disable endpoint defenses.”
Millbury National Bank is
working hard to protect itself,
and its customers.
“We utilize a third-party
company to provide our
core data system and we
also use their managed IT
services,” Mr. Latino said.
“They manage our IT infrastructure,
network, internet
service, intrusion detection
and prevention, firewall,
email, antivirus, data loss
prevention and provide us
backups and redundancy
to not only protect our data
and our customers’ information,
but also ensure we
can recover quickly from a
disaster, outage, or cyberattack.
“They have been successful
in identifying several
anomalies and potential attacks
and provide 24/7/365
monitoring and protection.
They are subject to strong
regulatory oversight from the
same agencies that regulate
the bank as well as audits
and other controls. We use
them to provide the most
safe and secure transaction
channels for online banking,
mobile banking, and item
processing. Our customers’
money and data have never
been safer.”
Millbury National has an
advantage in being “such a
small bank with our hands-on
processing and knowledge of
our customers,” Mr. Latino
says. “Our internal controls
for transaction monitoring,
electronic transactions, ATM/
Homefield Credit Union is a strong supporter of local organizations, as evidenced by sponsorship
money Homefield donated to the Grafton Lions Club in 2017.
Debit Card control, and wire
transfers [are] extremely
effective and [have] successfully
prevented fraudulent
transactions numerous
times. We are a partner for
our customers and community
and try and educate
customers whenever we can
about the dangers and pitfalls
that exist in our technology-driven
world today. We
also have continuous training
for all of our employees
to develop the best line of
defense—a human firewall.
Knowledgeable, informed,
attentive employees are the
first and best line of defense
against cyber risks.
“We have auditors test our
systems and controls on an
annual basis to ensure everything
is working properly
and is up to date. Our regulators
also require an in-depth
assessment of our risk and
scrutinize this area closely.
“I am happy to say Millbury
National Bank performs
well in this area.”
Accenture’s recommendation—obviously
self-serving
to an extent—is that “orga-
nizations should focus on
preparation, prevention and
pre-encryption defenses.”
Banks and credit unions
in the Blackstone Valley are
constantly reminding their
customers to be on guard
against threats of all kinds;
recently, for instance, Millbury
National Bank posted
“four steps to spot an online
shopping scam,” on its Facebook
page.
-----------------------------------------------------
Contact Rod Lee at
rodlee.1963@gmail.com or
774-232-2999.
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