Newsroom

Data security standards, information sharing and technology initiatives – including a partnership between MasterCard and First Tech Federal Credit Union, of California – were unveiled during Friday's White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection held at Stanford University.

MasterCard and First Tech will begin a pilot program this year allowing members to authenticate and verify transactions using biometrics including facial and voice recognition. Multi-factor authentication and secure payment technology was a major focus at the summit, which was attended by NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger and other financial and technology industry leaders and held at Stanford University.

Berger said the summit underscored the need for all involved to participate in efforts to protect data. "From a financial institution's perspective, all the stakeholders up and down the payment ecosystem must cooperate and coordinate," he told Payments.com.

Representatives of First Tech FCU as well as San Antonio FCU participated in Friday's summit, where President Barack Obama also signed an executive order to encourage the sharing of cybersecurity threat information between the private sector and the federal government.

The administration used the summit to call for legislative action and highlighted the White House cybersecurity legislative proposal, which includes mandates for businesses to notify consumers of breaches. The proposal also promotes information sharing and includes provisions for law enforcement to prosecute the overseas sale of stolen U.S. financial information. In addition, it is promoting a "consumers bill of rights" on companies collection of information.

NAFCU was the first financial trade association in the wake of the massive Target breach to call for a national data security and breach notification standards that would hold retailers accountable for data breaches that hurt consumers and their financial institutions.

The association is a member of the Payments Security Task Force, a diverse group of participants in the payments industry that is driving a discussion on payments system security. NAFCU is also a member of the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council and the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which work on infrastructure cybersecurity.