Pub. 11 2016-2017 Issue 4

www.nebankers.org 16 Extraordinary Service for Extraordinary Members. TECH TALK O NE OF THE DIFFICULT TASKS BANKS CONTINUE TO FACE is how to educate bank customers on the importance of cybersecurity. You send inserts with your bank statements and provide pamphlets in your brick and mortar branches, but what information is your customer truly absorbing? When your bank is marketing to customers and potential customers, you target your audience through TV ads, fliers, magazines, tradeshows, signage, etc.—in other words, through a variety of channels to reach a wide audience base. Think of educating your customers in the same way you market to them. After all, one of the roles of marketing is to educate. As with marketing, you can’t expect to educate your target audience about cybersecurity through just one channel. So here are some ideas and channels to consider for providing cybersecurity education: 1. Offer a lunch-and-learn event. One of our clients hosted a luncheon for its business customers and brought in a couple of speakers to talk about cyber risk and protection. The presentations covered real-life stories of cyber breaches and gave the business owners key takeaways for talking with their IT departments about current cyber controls and tips to follow to ensure their business and home systems are secure. Your business customers are some of your most important customers and are the highest risk targets of cybersecurity attacks. Provide them with a complimentary seminar at your bank where they can hear about important information secu- rity topics. Talk with your IT audit provider or examiner and see if they could recommend an information security expert to speak at your event. Lauren Wiley & Stephanie Chaumont, CoNetrix Education Is a Powerful Marketing Strategy 7 Ideas to Educate Your Customers on Cybersecurity