EXAM PREP

Abstract

Asking new questions and often following up with requests for hard proof, examiners are delving deeper than ever before into how community banks monitor and address cyber and IT security threats than ever before thanks in new IT security exams launched late last year. With this new regulatory focus on cybersecurity, examiners are investigating whether community banks are prepared to deal with threats whether awareness of these risks is shaping decisions at the board level, say community bankers who have undergone the new exams. And while examiners are more frequently asking for information such as logs, policies, procedures, meeting minutes and other data, community banks already following best practices say they feel well prepared for these exams. Examiners seem particularly interested in probing cybersecurity issues, community bankers report. They had more sophisticated questions in regards to security processes, monitoring and incidence response plans, notes Joel Williquette, VP of information technology at $273 million-asset Bank of Luxemburg, who felt like examiners had received additional technology training.