Preventing a Data Breach With Managed Detection and Response

Who

A Michigan-based credit union with two branches and $140 million in assets under management. Alma Brown had been a Member Services Representative there for nine years.

What

Alma was multitasking, participating in a Zoom call with reps from another branch and simultaneously cleaning up email. She opened an email seemingly from her CFO and clicked on an embedded link that launched a strange webpage. The phishing email had eluded the credit union industry-leading spam protection.

I was horrified! My co-workers make fun of me for being such a rule follower and I did not realize that I had clicked on the wrong thing.

Alma Brown, Member Services Representative

When

October 2022. It was the credit union first ever cyber incident.

How Dynamic Edge Responded

When Alma clicked on the risky link and initiated communication with the external server, MDR alerted the Dynamic Edge Help Desk and created an Emergency ticket. The team quickly identified the compromised machine, disconnected it from the network, and scanned the machine for unauthorized software.

They then initiated scans across all of the credit union machines to search for unauthorized software, and simultaneously contacted the credit union CIO and initiated their Incident Response Plan.

The Outcome

Network scans did not identify any additional unauthorized downloads. The Help Desk scrubbed Alma machine and got her back to work. No member data was breached.

This can happen to anyone. We are multitasking all the time and we are simply moving too fast. The bad guys know this and exploit it.

Kevin Wilson, Chief Information Security Officer, Dynamic Edge

Why It Matters

According to the 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 61% of data breaches involve small businesses, and without detection in place a breach can go unnoticed for weeks or even months. NCUA audit requirements, federal regulations and cyber insurance policies all now assume you can detect and respond, not just hope.

As always with security, you have to protect with layers. As the nature of threats evolve, so must the layers and how they interact with each other. MDR is a powerful tool that generates peace of mind for credit unions and the teams that protect them.

Kevin Wilson, CISO, Dynamic Edge