GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.–CU*Answers held its first ever week-long CEO Strategic Developers Boot Camp event while separately also led an exercise in deploying incident response plans.
The CEO Boot Camp was held in the CUSO’s main office as part of a new format for its annual conference. The new process gives CEOs and their business development executives the opportunity to participate in creating the solutions that CU*Answers and the cuasterisk.com network will take to market, the company said.
This year’s event hosted 52 CEOs and executives from credit unions and CUSOs around the country for working sessions that included Designing the Future of Internet Retailing, Designing Teller Platforms for Our Future, and Designing the Future for Online and Mobile Tools.
“Thanks to all for the hard work that made last week a win,” said CEO Randy Karnes. “There were several credit union delegations that took risks to stir the pot during our discussions, and I appreciate that.”
CU*Answers said the strategic work that began with this event will be followed up with multiple web-based sessions with credit union tactical teams and subject-matter experts, culminating in three separate Task Force events coming in March, April, and May, one event for each of the major topics.
“I think the CEOs got us going in the right direction. We have a lot of work to do to get ready for the next steps, which we will attack starting in December to keep the momentum going,” said Karnes.
Incident Response Exercise
Separately, CU*Answers said that as a CUSO serving 270 plus credit unions in 40 states, it is always seeking ways to leverage the combined experience and expertise of each participant for the benefit of the network.
“In the area of technology, one method that has been successful involves getting credit union IT leaders together on a biannual basis to share and discuss topics that are most urgent to them,” the company said.
During the November CUSO Technology User Group meeting held in Frankenmuth, Mich., one of the key items on the agenda was “Exercising the Credit Union Incident Response Plan.
According to the company, the discussion was launched with an educational presentation on the components that make up an effective incident response tabletop exercise including instructions for planning and implementing an ongoing program at the credit union.
A ‘Valuable Tool’
“The tabletop exercise is a valuable tool for identifying gaps and weaknesses and improving response capabilities, whether for business continuity or information security scenarios,” said Jim Lawrence, vice president of Business Continuity at CU*Answers. “Without exception, those exercises that are most successful begin with setting clear objectives and requires the full participation of an engaged team.”
CU*Answer said the group discussion on this topic was determined to be so relevant to the current needs of the credit unions who participated that a follow-up presentation was scheduled for the Spring 2019 CTUG meeting including a live demonstration of a cyber incident response tabletop exercise.