The traditional model of cybersecurity will never lead to 100% success in deterring and defeating attacks. Firewalls, filters, and software do provide crucial protection, but the digital battlefield is always shifting. The most important aspect of your cybersecurity isn’t your firewall: it’s you.
Technology is the first line of defense, but the individual member is the most critical security layer. You are in fact the most effective and adaptable defense against modern fraud.
Why Technical Filters Are Not Enough
The volume of cyber threats has exploded in the past decade, and since the advent of generative AI tools, it has only gotten worse. While email filters catch basic spam, they are consistently bypassed around the world by sophisticated attacks.
The sobering truth is that the human element is involved in the majority of all successful breaches. According to industry reports, the human element is contained in 68% of breaches, and 80% to 95% of those are initiated by a phishing attack. With the average cost of a phishing data breach estimated at $4.88 million, social engineers are highly motivated to become better and better at bypassing both cybersecurity and human alarm bells.
AI and Impersonation
Scams have evolved far beyond poorly spelled emails from foreign princes. The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has lowered the cost and increased the realism of advanced these threats by making them highly personalized and difficult to detect.
- AI Amplifier: AI is used to automatically scrape personal data from wherever it can find it and craft highly convincing, error-free emails and messages. More alarmingly, deepfake impersonations and voice calls or voice cloning (Vishing) of trusted executives or family members are on the rise, designed to leverage emotional panic.
- Targeted Lures: Attackers focus on leveraging trusted names to drop your guard:
- Brand Impersonation: Messages that are apparently from trusted services like Microsoft, DocuSign, or government agencies asking you to verify changes or sign documents.
- Multi-Channel Risk: Note that attacks now arrive via unusual channels like text messages (Smishing), social media, and QR codes (Quishing), reflecting a shift to attack you comprehensively, not just by email.
- Finance Is the Top Target: The Finance and Insurance sectors are consistently among the most highly targeted industries for phishing, making vigilance especially critical in those industries.
The Power of Reporting
The key to turning the tide against phishing lies in speed and reporting—the actions only a human can take.
- The Critical Metric (Dwell Time): Dwell time is the time between a malicious email hitting an inbox and a user reporting it. The faster a phishing email is reported, the faster the threat can be contained.
- Measurable Resilience: Organizations that focus on behavior-based training can see their phishing incidents drop by 86%. This proves that cybersecurity awareness is a skill that can be taught and learned.
- Education for the Future: Latitude 32 is committed to member financial education, from youth accounts to adult budgeting resources so that every member has the skills to recognize and report threats.
Three Non-Negotiable Security Habits
To activate your defense, integrate these essential habits into your daily digital routine:
- Verify, Don’t Trust the Context: This is the golden rule. If a message creates urgency, threatens action, or asks you to click a link, it is likely a scam. Never click or reply. Check the source independently. If a supposed bank representative calls, hang up and call our Member Service team directly using the number on your official statement or our website.
- Master Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Since the goal of about 80% of phishing attacks is credential theft, MFA is your single best piece of technical protection. Even if a scammer steals your password, they cannot log in without the code from your MFA. Always enable MFA wherever possible on accounts that contain any personal information, financial information or access, or on accounts that can be used to gain access to other accounts (such as email).
- The Skeptical Pause: Address the psychology of scams (fear/urgency). Tell yourself that any legitimate request from an authority figure (Latitude 32 Credit Union, IRS, etc.) can wait until you verify it independently of the original communication. A frantic, threatening, or too-good-to-be-true message is a fraudulent message. Take a breath and walk away from the device, maybe talk it over with a friend or family member, then contact the organization in question through legitimate means.
Protecting the Charleston Community
Technology provides the first line of defense, but you are the strongest element of your cybersecurity.
We are committed to providing the safest digital environment possible. If you ever receive a suspicious communication that is supposedly from us, please contact your Latitude 32 Member Service team immediately. By doing so, you are strengthening the collective security of our community.