Cybersecurity Insights & Resources

SMS and push-based MFA are no longer enough on their own. Here's why examiners are pushing toward phishing-resistant authentication and how to get there without a forklift upgrade.

Change management is a standard IT general control, but weak documentation is one of the most common exam findings. Here's what a defensible record actually looks like.

A practical way to keep policy approvals, control testing, vendor reviews, and remediation evidence organized throughout the year.

A practical checklist for incident notification clauses — and a simple way to test whether vendors can actually meet them.

A practical tabletop structure you can run in an hour to validate roles, escalation paths, communications, and evidence capture.

A lightweight reporting format that helps boards and examiners see risk, trends, and remediation status without drowning in technical detail.

The FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment Tool has been sunset. Here is how institutions can move from a checklist exercise to a defensible risk management program using current frameworks.

CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog gives institutions a practical way to prioritize patching around real-world exploitation, not just severity scores.

Logging and monitoring is one of the most consistently cited gaps at smaller institutions. Here’s what a defensible program looks like — and why it matters beyond just satisfying examiners.

IT examinations don’t have to be a surprise. Understanding what examiners are looking for — and getting your documentation in order before they arrive — makes a measurable difference.

The updated Safeguards Rule has been in effect for several years — but many smaller institutions are still running compliance programs built around the old standard. Here’s what needs to change.

Patch management rarely gets attention until something goes wrong. Examiners have been scrutinizing it more closely for years — here’s what a defensible program actually looks like.

An incident response plan that exists only on paper will cost you at the worst possible moment. Here’s what regulators expect — and how to build a program that holds up under pressure.

A BCP that lives in a binder and hasn’t been tested is a liability, not an asset. Here’s what regulators expect from your business continuity program and how to build one that works.

Access control findings are among the most common exam citations at community banks and credit unions. The fix is usually less technical than you’d expect.

Annual security awareness training is required — but a once-a-year video and a quiz aren’t enough anymore. Here’s what regulators expect and how to build a program that actually changes behavior.

Most institutions complete an annual risk assessment because they have to. The ones that get the most value out of it treat it as a management tool, not a compliance checkbox.

Third-party vendor management is one of the most consistently cited exam findings at organizations. If your program still lives in a spreadsheet with annual certificates of insurance, this post is for you.