LAS VEGAS — About 50 credit union information technology executives filled the meeting room at the Platinum Hotel and, over three days at the annual CU Information Security Conference. They heard that the threats are mounting, they are getting more sophisticated and the probability is high is that they will only get tougher.

That is because smart crooks no longer rob financial institutions with a mask and a gun. They use a computer mouse and a browser and if they are slick, they may rival the $45 million stolen by a ragtag gang of cybercriminals in a blitzkrieg crime revealed by the FBI in May. Those crooks figured out how to falsify information associated with prepaid cards issued by several Middle Eastern banks and in a few blinks of an eye, millions vanished and, once gone, it probably is gone forever.

Credit union executives in attendance at the event said that the credit union employee remains a weak link that criminals, increasingly, are targeting.