DefenseStorm

DefenseStorm DefenseStorm ensures cyber risk readiness, including cybersecurity, compliance, & fraud DefenseStorm is a NAFCU Preferred Partner for cloud cybersecurity.

Operating both as a technology system and as a service supported by experts in FI security and compliance, the GRID watches everything on a bank or credit union’s network and matches it to defined policies for real time, complete and proactive cyber exposure readiness, keeping security teams smart and executives accountable. FFIEC CAT and ACET requirements are built-in and automated, as can be oth

er frameworks and an FI’s own policies, to achieve Active Compliance™. A Threat Ready Active Compliance (TRAC) Team™ augments a bank or credit union’s internal team to protect business continuity and skills availability while also ensuring cost-effective coverage and management.

You can't govern what you haven't named.That's the starting point for AI governance at community banks and credit unions...
06/26/2026

You can't govern what you haven't named.
That's the starting point for AI governance at community banks and credit unions right now — not because formal guidance has arrived, but because it hasn't.
SR 26-2 omitted generative AI from scope. The AI RFI hasn't landed yet. But the obligation to identify and manage risk hasn't paused. It never does.
Before the guidance catches up, there are seven things every institution should be doing today:
→ Inventory the AI tools already in use (including ones embedded in third-party products you don't think of as "AI")

→ Document purpose, scope, and known limitations

→ Assign named accountability for every AI application

→ Require human review for any output that drives a material decision

→ Demand explainability from any AI your team relies on

→ Hold AI vendors to your existing third-party risk standards

→ Get ahead of shadow AI — your people are already using it
Our team broke this down in full. 🔗https://ow.ly/CqFS50ZflFx

Choosing to wait on AI is itself a risk management decision.The OCC's Spring 2026 Semiannual Risk Perspective made it pl...
06/23/2026

Choosing to wait on AI is itself a risk management decision.
The OCC's Spring 2026 Semiannual Risk Perspective made it plain: threat actors are already using AI at scale — to lower the barrier to entry, automate reconnaissance, build malware that evades traditional defenses.
In the same report, the OCC named AI-assisted threat detection as part of sound cyber risk management.
That's supervisory language. Not marketing language. When your regulator explicitly frames AI-powered defense as part of managing the risk, the wait-and-see posture isn't conservative. It's a risk posture of its own.
If an examiner asked today how your institution governs the AI it already uses, what would you be able to show them?
Jessica Caballero wrote the piece worth reading before the AI RFI drops. 🔗 https://ow.ly/iS4850ZflE7

The model risk guidance your institution has been using for 15 years just got rewritten.And the new version — SR 26-2, i...
06/22/2026

The model risk guidance your institution has been using for 15 years just got rewritten.
And the new version — SR 26-2, issued April 17 by the Fed, OCC, and FDIC — explicitly puts generative AI and agentic AI out of scope.
That's not a pass. That's a redirect.
The agencies were clear: govern AI under the risk program you already run. Same board-prescribed risk appetite. Same vendor oversight standards. Same documentation and accountability. Pointed at a new category of tool.
You don't need a new program. You need to apply the one you have.
Our VP of Banking Strategy, Jessica Caballero, breaks down what this guidance actually means for community banks and credit unions — and the seven things you should be doing right now, before the AI RFI lands.
🔗 https://ow.ly/YAkT50Zflzx

What a week.From Sea Island to La Jolla, we had the best time connecting with community bankers across the country.Huge ...
06/16/2026

What a week.

From Sea Island to La Jolla, we had the best time connecting with community bankers across the country.

Huge thank you to Georgia Bankers Association for an incredible Annual Convention — and to California Bankers Association for bringing together some of the sharpest women in banking at the Women in Banking Conference.

These events remind us why we do what we do. The conversations, the connections, the mission — it all shows up in rooms like these.

Can't wait for what's next. 🤝

Every insider incident we observed in H1 2026 involved privilege misuse.In one case, data was exfiltrated to a third par...
06/01/2026

Every insider incident we observed in H1 2026 involved privilege misuse.

In one case, data was exfiltrated to a third party over Zoom. Most institutions have invested in email DLP, USB restrictions, and cloud upload controls. Screen sharing and file transfer over video conferencing platforms often fall completely outside those controls. Data leaves in plain sight, during what looks like a normal business meeting, and nothing fires.

The numbers from the broader industry: $20.68M average annual insider threat cost in financial services. 123% rise since 2018. Incidents contained in under 31 days cost $10.6M on average. Slow detection adds a 76% premium.

And the profile isn't what most people assume — 75% of insider incidents are non-malicious. But when they are malicious, financial services insiders have direct access to the thing they're after.

A passing access review doesn't mean access is right-sized. It means someone signed off that a list matched a role. The gap between authorized access and necessary access is where insider risk lives — and where examiners are increasingly looking.

Our H1 2026 threat report: https://ow.ly/e3oN50Z4Pe0

$3.05 billion in reported losses. ~$123,000 per incident on average. 86% transmitted by wire or ACH — fast and usually u...
05/29/2026

$3.05 billion in reported losses. ~$123,000 per incident on average. 86% transmitted by wire or ACH — fast and usually unrecoverable.

That's BEC in 2025, per the FBI's IC3 Annual Report. And vendor email compromise — where an attacker uses a real, trusted vendor's mailbox to send fraudulent payment instructions — now drives more than 60% of it. Sender reputation checks pass. The email is from a real account at a real company you already do business with.

AI is making it worse. Deepfake audio in callback verification. AI-generated email threads that spoof prior conversations. The verification step many institutions rely on is becoming less reliable.

For a bank or credit union, BEC isn't an email problem. It's a fraud problem with a cyber entry point — and FFIEC expects those two programs to be connected, not parallel.

The institutions catching it early treat upstream cyber telemetry (auth failures, mailbox rule changes) and downstream fraud signals (payment pattern deviations, beneficiary changes) as one workflow.

Our H1 2026 threat report from DefenseStorm CTS Ops: https://ow.ly/HwFO50Z4P7H

In late April, our Security Operations team analyzed a new ClickFix variant on a monitored endpoint.Not a single commerc...
05/27/2026

In late April, our Security Operations team analyzed a new ClickFix variant on a monitored endpoint.

Not a single commercial antivirus engine flagged either of the two malicious files.

ClickFix doesn't exploit a vulnerability. There's no attachment to scan. No link to block. The user is tricked into pasting a command into their own machine — usually via a fake CAPTCHA or "verify you are human" prompt — and becomes the ex*****on engine themselves.

In H1 2025 these attacks surged 517%. By 2026 it's the dominant initial access vector across our monitored client base, used by financially motivated actors, ransomware affiliates, and nation-states alike.

For a bank or credit union, the next-hop targets are the wire room, ACH origination, and the core processor. Same technique. Categorically worse outcome.

Our full H1 2026 threat report — what we're seeing, what's working, and what to do about it: https://ow.ly/6kBN50Z4P2l

In observance of Memorial Day, we are out of office. Today, we honor and remember the brave men and women who gave their...
05/25/2026

In observance of Memorial Day, we are out of office. Today, we honor and remember the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Our Security Operations team is proactively monitoring cybersecurity threats 24x7x365.

We will be back in the office tomorrow morning!

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1720 Windward Concourse
Alpharetta, GA
30005

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(470) 519-0020

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