2009 Montana Bankers Association Security Conference held in Bozeman, MT

20 October 2009

Sponsored by MMSC, and offered by the Montana Bankers Association, the 2009 MBA Security Conference was held on October 8th in Bozeman, Montana. With new and persistent threats and the addition of mobile banking, about 30 banking professionals charged with compliance and security were in attendance.

As part of compliance, the Gramm-Leach-Bailey Act dictates that financial institutions of all sizes prepare with an Information Security Program (ISP) to protect customer information. An integral part this program is a successful IT examination.

Topics at the conference ranged from the latest in hacking trends and brand new regulations to the precautionary and best practices in IT security that must be taken to safeguard information.

IT security and network audits play a vital part in the evaluation of risk management practices, internal control systems, and compliance. Effective security and network assessments function as part of the Information Security Program to inform the Board of Directors and prepare for the Examiner's Audit.

At the forefront of IT in Montana since 1982, Morrison-Maierle Systems Corp. (MMSC) regularly provides these independent reviews for financial institutions and associations of all sizes throughout Montana. Assessments should be conducted annually. Two important ingredients to the exam include the internal vulnerability test and the external penetration test.

Vulnerability tests are conducted on-site. This is an automated process that scans the financial institution’s network for commonly exploited vulnerabilities such as missing patches and open ports.  An external penetration test searches for the availability of information by scanning the network from the outside for weaknesses, much like a real life malicious hacking attack.

When completed, we report findings and make practical recommendations to mitigate risk and harden your network against known vulnerabilities.


For more information, please contact Allison Ohman at aohman@m-m.net or (406) 237-1211.