FFIEC Cybersecurity Compliance Explained

by Justin Peacock on August 17, 2020

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) is the federal agency responsible for enforcing and regulating financial institutions’ standards and protections. Developed in 1979 and composed of five separate FFIEC member agencies, it acts today as the framework for banking institutions and financial services. Proving compliance with the FFIEC is determined based on an organization’s cybersecurity maturity levels and posture. In 2005 during the introduction of online banking, the FFIEC developed a cybersecurity framework for banking institutions to abide by when handling sensitive banking information online and an FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT) for use to standardize compliance efforts and for institutions to identify their risks.

The FFIEC CAT is the primary way of proving compliance with the FFIEC. While this is good for standardization, it does very little to tie into other compliance frameworks financial institutions may need to implement. The CAT allows an organization to run internal assessments for auditing purposes. However, it does not unify that information in an easily accessible way, nor does it present assessment data in a way that can unite cybersecurity teams or board members around cybersecurity initiatives. Extending past the limitations of the CAT, becoming compliant with the FFIEC requires organizations to set cybersecurity goals, identify cyber threats and solutions, identify cybersecurity risks and conduct periodic reviews to assess their cybersecurity preparedness from internal and external threats. By utilizing an integrated risk management solution like CyberStrong, organizations can prove compliance with the FFIEC along with many others by crosswalking and automating cybersecurity compliance efforts by allowing them to view inherent risk profiles and cybersecurity maturity posture in one place.

Using an integrated risk management solution enables financial services risk and compliance teams to streamline compliance efforts in a way that can provide clarity to all stakeholders. If you have any questions about FFIEC compliance, the FFIEC’s Cybersecurity Assessment Tool, or how using an integrated risk management Solution can optimize your cybersecurity initiatives past the needs of the FFIEC, give us a call at 1-800 NIST CSF or click here to schedule a free demo.