Cybersecurity Month is quickly coming to a close, but that’s not where cybersecurity ends. As you move towards 2027, here are three areas to look at when strengthening your cybersecurity program.
Identity is the linchpin: why account audits matter
Most cyber incidents do not begin with an exotic technical failure. They begin with an identity (user account) that is weakly protected, overprivileged, shared, or no longer needed. Because identities are the linchpin to your network, a disciplined user account audit is one of the most practical ways to reduce risk, improve cyber hygiene, and demonstrate responsible oversight.
What an effective audit should test
- Stale accounts: Disable or remove accounts tied to former employees, contractors, abandoned services, or prolonged inactivity.
- Unnecessary administrator accounts: Confirm that every privileged account has a current business purpose and an accountable owner.
- Users operating with administrator privileges: Separate routine user activity from privileged administration and apply least privilege.
- Inconsistently applied MFA: Identify gaps across users, administrators, remote access, cloud services, and high-risk applications. Every user account should have MFA.
- Privilege delegation: Review direct and inherited permissions, role assignments, temporary access, and approval paths.
- Shared passwords between accounts: Eliminate password reuse and shared credentials; assign unique identities wherever possible.
Poor account hygiene expands the attack surface of your network, weakens accountability, and allows a single compromised credential to cause outsized damage. It also makes investigations slower and can undermine evidence that security controls are operating as intended. Account audits turn identity governance from an assumption into a documented management practice.
Next steps:
Ensure your next audit is scheduled today. Direct internal audit or IT to review user and privileged accounts on a regular schedule—no less than annually, and more frequently for high-risk or rapidly changing environments. Require a written record of the scope, findings, accountable owners, remediation actions, exceptions, and completion dates. Executives should receive a concise summary of material risks and verify that unresolved items are tracked to closure.
Firewall rule audits: reduce exposure at the network edge
A firewall is only as effective as the rules it enforces. Over time, business changes, temporary projects, previous vendor connections, and remote-access needs can leave behind rules that are no longer needed or overly permissive. Regular firewall rule audits help the credit union reduce unnecessary exposure, protect member information, and demonstrate that network access remains aligned with current business needs.
What an effective audit should test
- Documented business purpose: Each rule should have a clear justification, owner, approval record, affected systems, and expected lifespan.
- Necessary traffic only: Restrict inbound and outbound traffic to the specific services, sources, destinations, ports, and protocols required to operate the credit union.
- Unused rules: Remove or disable rules showing no legitimate traffic, after confirming they are not needed for periodic or contingency operations.
- Secure VPN configuration: Use current encryption standards and eliminate weak or obsolete ciphers and protocols.
- VPN architecture: Because SSL VPN services are frequently targeted, plan and execute migration to appropriately configured IPSec VPNs.
- Remote-access identities: Require MFA, audit user accounts and privileges, limit access to business need, and promptly remove stale accounts.
- Protected management interfaces: Do not expose firewall administration interfaces directly to the Internet; restrict management access to trusted administrative paths.
These reviews reduce the chance that a forgotten rule, weak remote-access configuration, or compromised account becomes a path into the network. They also improve accountability by connecting technical access to a documented business decision and a responsible owner.
Next steps:
Direct IT, internal audit, or your managed service provider to review firewall rules and VPN access regularly—no less than once per year, and more often when systems, vendors, locations, or threats change. Require documented findings, rule owners, business purposes, approved exceptions, remediation actions, and completion dates. Management should receive a concise risk summary and verify that unnecessary access is removed and remaining issues are tracked to closure.
Patch management: close the gaps before attackers find them
Software vulnerabilities are a predictable path into the network. When patches are delayed, missed, or poorly tracked, known weaknesses can remain exposed long after fixes are available. A durable patch-management program gives executives evidence that vulnerabilities are being identified, prioritized, remediated in a timely fashion, and reported—not merely assumed to be under control.
What an effective program should include
- Accurate asset inventory: Maintain a current inventory of hardware, software, cloud services, appliances, and supported versions, with accountable owners.
- Internal and external scanning: Scan from both perspectives to identify missing patches, exposed services, configuration weaknesses, and assets that internal tools may not see.
- Remove unsupported software: Many software manufacturers do not include automated removal of previous software versions which means patch automation software can leave them behind. Use asset and scanning tools to surface outdated software and remove manually if necessary.
- Reporting and reconciliation: Compare automated patching reports against the asset inventory. Missing devices, unsupported systems, failed deployments, and exceptions can reveal blind spots in patching coverage.
- AI-assisted analysis: Use an approved AI tool to compare inventories, scan results, vendor notices, and patch reports; surface gaps; and assist with remediation prioritization. Keep people accountable for validation and final risk decisions.
- Vendor vulnerability alerts: Subscribe to alerts from critical technology vendors and ensure advisories are reviewed, assigned, and tracked promptly.
- Remediation discipline: Define risk-based deadlines, testing and deployment procedures, exception approvals, compensating controls, escalation paths, and verification of closure.
- Board-level reporting: Report material exposures, overdue remediation, exceptions, trends, and progress in clear business terms.
Next steps:
Ask IT or internal audit to confirm that the credit union has a durable patch-management, reporting, and remediation plan. Require defined ownership, a regular reporting cadence, documented findings and exceptions, risk-based remediation targets, and evidence that fixes were completed in a timely manner. Management should review unresolved gaps, while the board receives a concise view of significant exposure, trends, and accountability.
