ARLINGTON, Va.-NAFCU member credit unions are ready to face the Oct. 1 compliance date for the Customer Identification Programs required under the USA PATRIOT Act, NAFCU's latest Flash Report found. "It looks like NAFCU member credit unions are well prepared for that; they have their CIP plans in place and are ready to comply with that act," NAFCU Senior Economist Jeff Taylor said. Of the 130 respondents, 43% said that their board of directors had already approved their CIP and another 51% said the board was expected to approve it at their September board meeting. Twenty-two percent replied that the CIP would require changes in how the institutions verify member identities. Most of the changes involved obtaining certain documents. Resulting from increased concern over security issues, credit union security is "becoming more compartmentalized as part of their strategic planning and business strategies," Taylor said. NAFCU's Flash found that 91% of respondents designate a specific staff member to receive security alerts. The most common designee was the chief information officer (27%). Second was the IT/IS manager (23%), while the network administrator was NAFCU member credit unions' third choice at 21%. Security alert receipt had become part of the credit unions' formal security program in 68% of the cases. Symantec was the most common company for NAFCU member credit unions to receive their security alerts from (36%). Eighteen percent pointed to SANS, while 11% said McAfee/Network Associates. Nearly all (94%) said they were happy with their alerts and methods of receipt. In light of the changes imposed by the USA PATRIOT Act following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Flash also looked into biometric security use at member credit unions. "We found that 8% of NAFCU members currently use that technology," Taylor said. "Although only 8% are using it currently, 6% more indicated that they are moving into that technology within the next year. So, again, while small in the overall scheme of things, it looks like it's picking up." Of the credit unions that employed biometric technology for security, 72% used finger print scanning, 14% used signature recognition and another 14% used hand geometry. Half of the credit unions said they used biometrics to identify staff, but only 17% use the technology to identify members. Another 17% said they used the technology to identify both members and staff. Sixteen percent said they use it to identify "other" people. -

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