SAN ANTONIO – Digital Defense's original client has lined up again with the IT security specialist to help get the home "TEAM" off to a good start. San Antonio City Employees Federal Credit Union (SACEFCU) is now among the first to offer to its members the computer security awareness offering dubbed Security TEAM (Security Training, Education and Awareness for Members). The Security TEAM is a program of Digital Defense training courses geared toward non-technical minded credit union members and are presented through a secured link through the CU's Web site The program, developed with input from participating credit unions, focuses on basic steps to avoid identity theft, viruses and other online problems. It includes testing at the end of each "course" and automatically generates a "course completion" certificate when one is successfully completed. Some credit unions also are adding incentives to encourage members to use it, the company says. SACEFCU is calling the service its "Online Security TEAM" on its Web site at www.sacefcu.org, where it resides under a Member Education tab along with MyDAS and CUNA consumer education, financial planning help and other offerings. "We have a membership that's traditionally blue collar with an average age of about 48, so this is something that we think can be very valuable to them, and we plan to step up our marketing of it, probably starting with our newsletter in January, when people start to kind of getting their documents together for tax time," says Tim Haegelin, president and CEO of the $277 million CU. "In addition to helping them learn how to avoid identity theft and other computer problems, it's a good way to promote usage of our Web site in general," he says. SACEFCU was Digital Defense's first client when the company was created in 1999, Haegelin adds, and the credit union still relies on it for vulnerability assessment, network penetration testing and IT security reviews. Haegelin and Joseph Cooper, the 300-plus-client company's chairman and CEO, both note that consumer education needs to be a major weapon in the arsenal against online crime, especially those like phishing. "Even the most secure online service platforms cannot protect against an unaware user falling victim to a fraud and providing information and access to an unauthorized user," Cooper says. "We strongly believe that training credit union members in the fundamentals of security is another essential element in the overall security program for our credit union clients," he says. Other credit unions committed to the Security TEAM include State Employees Credit Union of Michigan and Southwest Corporate FCU, which says it will be offering it to the corporate's 1,200 member credit unions. "Since the Security TEAM program was created through consultation with credit unions, we believe it will effectively meet their needs," says Bob Rehm, the corporate's vice president of marketing and sales. "The timing is right." Providing such consumer training also will help CUs meet the NCUA mandates for consumer education in its Letters to Credit Unions 04-CU-06 and 04-CU-12, notes Mark Leutwyler, director of marketing at Digital Defense (www.digitaldefense.net). Letter 04-CU-06, for instance, says in part that "NCUA encourages credit unions to educate their members, strengthen monitoring systems and enhance response programs to reduce the potential risk of Internet-related fraud schemes to their organization and members." Haegelin says the NCUA mandate was a consideration in the decision to offer the Security TEAM training to his CU's 42,600 members, "but it was also really in response to the threat of identity theft happening to our members. "We get calls from our members all the time with questions about calls and e-mails they get from credit card companies, this third party or that, and we just really see a need to give them solid consumer education about what can happen and what to avoid." -
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