CUs Advised RE: Cyber Attacks on 5/7 Posted by AVCU on 1:04 PM

Last Friday CUNA advised credit unions to be on the lookout for possible widespread Distributed Denial of Service attacks on May 7th. Internet "chatter" has been detected about a potential widespread attack.

"It is not possible to assess the veracity of the threat at this time, but it is important that credit unions be aware and prepared at all times. Also, some of the largest credit unions are included in a list of targets for the purported May attack so heightened awareness is warranted," said CUNA Vice President of Information Technology Tom Nohelty Thursday.

DDoS attacks are attempts to disrupt or suspend online service by saturating a target's network with external communication requests to overload its server. If a credit union is subject to an attack, Nohelty explains, it will see a "very large spike" in Internet traffic to its Web site from one or more IP addresses and their Web site will become unresponsive. Proactive measures a credit union can take include:

• Alerting its network team to actively monitor in-bound Internet traffic that day. The team should be prepared to block traffic from specific IP addresses in an effort to maintain their Web site's ability to respond to normal business requests;
• Consider alerting members about the Internet threat for May 7 and asking members to execute critical online banking business on a different day or come into the credit union office;
• Educating call center staff on the symptoms of a denial of service attack so they can better serve the members and notify their network teams if an attack is underway. The call center staff should be prepared with alternatives to serve the members.