NCUA Vice Chairman Kyle S. Hauptman at the NCUA's central office in Alexandria, Virginia.
As Prepared for Delivery on April 21, 2022
Thank you, Ernie, for that presentation.
Your field of choice, cybersecurity, is a good one when it comes to job security. The cyber landscape continues to be fraught with threats. And the current geo-political situation only adds to the challenge.
Ernie, I’d like to congratulate you and your team on the successful rollout of the Automated Cybersecurity Evaluation Toolbox (ACET). Two thousand five hundred downloads since October are significant. Although we don’t know which credit unions downloaded it, I think that level of uptake is impressive.
I got in last night from a credit union conference, and one thing about your new tool is that it gives me something to say when asked about cyber-security.
I’ve mentioned to you that this topic is always a bit tough for me since it’s not something in which I consider myself fluent. Thus, I appreciate having something substantive to say to credit union CEOs, many of whom are also second-language speakers when it comes to cyber risks.
Since our last update, we have added the Information Security Examination (ISE) tool for the field staff. While it is still in testing with roughly 100 NCUA and state examiners, the alignment between ISE and ACET is worth noting.
The extra effort to align the two tools not only will assist credit unions in building out their cybersecurity systems but also provides credit unions with the elements of what they can expect during an examination.
Knowing that ACET can help credit unions prepare for their examination should alleviate some of the anxiety that comes with the cybersecurity audit. This saves time and money for the credit union.
In a moment, we are going to hear a presentation on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). We all agree that DEI and financial inclusion are critical goals for the NCUA.
The reason I bring this up is that every dollar a credit union must spend to comply with a rule or regulation is a dollar that isn’t available to its members. When those rules and regulations are right-sized, that dollar is well spent.
Credit unions aren’t government agencies. They can’t just keep adding stuff and adding staff—they often have to subtract and reduce, whether in terms of time, money, and staff.
Only when we understand those limitations can the NCUA truly say it cares about financial inclusion.