NewsWatch Today

The number of U.S. data breaches hit a new all-time high in 2017, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Identified breaches rose 44.7 percent last year to 1,579.

The Senate this week is scheduled to take up House-passed legislation to extend the National Flood Insurance Program. The House bill would extend the NFIP, which is scheduled to expire on Tuesday, through November.

The FDIC has not developed sufficient strategies for several information technology transitions, the agency’s inspector general said. The Office of the Inspector General said the FDIC failed to adequately address IT security concerns, adequately communicate with agency stakeholders on transitioning to the cloud, or implement an enterprise architecture to guide its IT initiatives. It recommended better coordination and including the agency’s IT plans in its governance processes and framework.

Not understanding cyber-insurance policy riders can come back to haunt covered parties, the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center reported. In its latest weekly report for community financial institutions, FS-ISAC cites the rise in claim denials by insurance providers and inconsistencies across carriers.

A new report from the Department of Commerce and Homeland Security offers guidelines to help reduce the threat of botnets and similar cyberattacks.

This week’s community institution risk summary report highlights calls by federal government agencies and private sector organizations for citizens to reboot their home and office network routers and storage devices, update the firmware, and reset the administrative password.

In a new blog post, ICBA Bancard President and CEO Tina Giorgio recaps the latest financial technology innovations showcased during last month’s Finovate conference.

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac; NYSE: AGM and AGM.A) today announced its results for the fiscal quarter and year ended December 31, 2017, which included $1.6 billion in net new business volume growth that brought total outstanding business volume to $19.0 billion as of December 31, 2017.

The Bureau raised the HMDA Regulation C asset-size threshold from $44 million to $45 million as of Dec. 31, 2017.

CFPB launches HMDA Check Digit Tool & Rate Spread Calculator

Military personnel will receive certain protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act through Dec. 31, 2019, due to legislation signed into law on Tuesday.