DFS NYS New Cyber Security Regulation for Financial Institutions 23 NYCRR 500

The March 2019 DFS deadline has passed. Is your business compliant?

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  • On March 1, 2017, the NY State Department of Financial Services’ (DFS) issued new mandatory cyber security requirements for financial services, with required implementation to take place by August 28, 2017.  This “risk-based, holistic, and robust security program” is designed to protect consumers’ private data within financial organizations. MDS has provided a comprehensive breakdown of the security requirements and the necessary solutions we provide to help get your cyber security framework compliant and secure.

Who is Affected?

The NYDFS Cyber Security Requirements cover any organization required to “operate under DFS license, registration or charter, or which are otherwise DFS-regulated, as well as, by extension, unregulated third-party service providers to regulated entitles.”

Including:

  • state-chartered banks
  • licensed lenders
  • private bankers
  • service contract providers
  • trust companies
  • mortgage companies
  • insurance companies doing business in New York
  • foreign banks licensed to operate in New York

Become DFS Compliant in 5 Steps

What You Need to Do - and How MDS Can Help:

According to the new cyber security NYDFS regulations, it is mandatory for all covered entities to implement and file the following regulations by August 28th, 2017. Those who are not compliant by this deadline will be penalized.

While all this represents new challenges for organizations in the financial services field and beyond, the common denominator is that a sound strategy and the right tools and solutions will streamline, simplify and provide a stronger cyber security program for your organization. The Compliance Experts at MDS will not only ensure you are compliant, but that you have implemented a more effective, long-term cyber security protocol in the process.

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Establish a cyber security program based on periodic risk assessments meant to identify and evaluate risks. Effectively protect information systems and nonpublic information; detect, respond to, and recover from cyber events and adhere to all reporting obligations.

Create and maintain written policies and procedures to protect your organization’s systems and nonpublic information based on the company’s risk assessment.

Appoint a CISO to oversee and implement the required cybersecurity program. The CISO may be employed by an affiliate, the regulated entity, or a third-party service provider.

With MDS’s Virtual CISO service, our certified engineers provide your organization with qualified MDS security advisers to assist in guiding security efforts, execute plans and implement a custom strategy for your company. MDS acts as an extension of your team, providing security program assessment, development, and management.

MDS Continuous Penetration Testing gives your organization a realistic look at how attackers exploit IT vulnerabilities and actionable ways on how to stop them. Our team not only conducts hundreds of penetration tests annually, but our engineers continuously train on the latest security innovations to ensure we understand this constantly evolving epidemic, learning the latest techniques to identify and negate threats.

Securely maintain systems must be designed to: reconstruct fiscal transactions following a security breach and audit trails to detect and respond to cyber security events (maintain records for 3 years).

Security best practices and procedures for internally developed apps is mandatory, along with the periodic evaluating, assessing and security testing of externally developed apps. With MDS financial application security solutions, we can interpret and test today’s modern and complex apps, providing your organization with comprehensive and actionable vulnerability reports.

Conduct bi-annual, documented risk assessments that consider threats and the examination of current controls in relation to identifying risk.

 

MDS offers assessments that evaluate the effectiveness of your cyber security controls and provides a prioritized and risk-based security road-map, with detailed recommendations to you can update your security protocol with confidence.

Qualified cyber security personnel or an “Affiliate or a Third-Party Service Provider” sufficient to manage the organization’s risks and to perform or oversee the performance of essential cyber security functions. MDS engineers are highly trained in cyber security to effectively address relevant risks, and continuously attend trainings in order to effectively monitor the evolving threats and corresponding countermeasures

To protect unauthorized access to Nonpublic Information, the use of Multi-Factor Authentication (more than one method of credentials to verify user identity)  is required for any individual accessing the Covered Entity’s internal networks from an external network.

Each Covered Entity is required to have policies and procedures for the secure periodic disposal of specific categories of Nonpublic Information