By Rose Oswald Poels, WBA president and CEO
Each October, Cybersecurity Awareness Month serves as an important reminder of the critical role cybersecurity plays in protecting our institutions, our customers, and the financial system as a whole. While cybersecurity is a year-round priority for Wisconsin banks, this month provides an opportunity to reaffirm the industry’s commitment to vigilance and preparedness and educate customers in the face of constantly evolving threats.
Today’s cybercriminals are more sophisticated than ever. While banks continue to invest heavily in technology, one of the greatest vulnerabilities remains human behavior. Fraudsters increasingly rely on phishing attempts, social engineering tactics, business email compromise schemes, and account takeover attacks that are designed to exploit trust rather than technology.
As community bankers, we understand that cybersecurity is not solely the responsibility of an IT department. It is an organization-wide effort that requires engagement from employees at every level, from frontline staff to executive leadership and boards of directors. Ongoing training, regular testing of internal controls, and a strong culture of security awareness remain among the most effective tools available to combat cyber threats.
This year’s observance also comes as fraud schemes become increasingly personalized and convincing. Jeff Otteson, vice president of sales with Midwest Bankers Insurance Services, noted in the August 2026 “WBA Compliance Journal” that criminals are leveraging publicly available information from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to create highly targeted scams that mimic legitimate communications from trusted financial institutions. Using the PPP loan information, criminals can identify a business, its loan amount and, in many cases, the financial institution associated with the loan. That information gives a fraudster enough credibility to make an unexpected call, text message or email sound legitimate.
These evolving threats reinforce several important best practices for banks: maintaining strong authentication controls, reviewing wire transfer and callback procedures, regularly testing incident response plans, and continuing to educate both employees and customers about emerging fraud trends. Just as importantly, banks should ensure their policies, procedures, and day-to-day practices remain aligned with their risk management and insurance requirements.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month is also a valuable opportunity to engage customers. Encouraging consumers and businesses to use strong passwords, enable multifactor authentication, monitor accounts regularly, and verify unusual requests can help reduce the success of many common attacks. Every conversation about fraud prevention strengthens the partnership between banks and the communities they serve.
At the WBA, we remain committed to providing educational resources, training opportunities, audit services, and industry expertise, including access to best-of-class cyber-insurance policies, to help our members stay ahead of emerging threats. As we recognize Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I encourage every Wisconsin bank to take advantage of WBA’s resources and expertise to continue building a strong internal culture of security as well as to share expert advice and tips with customers and the public.
