A looming deadline regarding a relatively obscure piece ofsecurity technology could soon give credit unions major headachesand call attention to weak spots in their data protections,industry experts warn.

At issue is an authentication protocol called Transport LayerSecurity, or TLS. It helps establish secure communications betweensystems, including between credit unions and members, or betweencredit unions and core processors or other vendors.

There are different versions of TLS, but the oldest is TLS 1.0.Its last major revision was in 1990, according to the PCI SecurityStandards Council. That version is notoriously vulnerable tohackers, which means that data, files, and processing activitiesusing TLS 1.0 can be especially susceptible to breaches, accordingto Lou Grilli, who is director of payments strategy at CSCU inTampa, Florida.