Implementing honeynets and web application firewalls, avoiding malware and zero day attacks, and the economics of cybersecurity, were among the topics covered at the CU InfoSecurity 2017 conference in San Diego.

Like many businesses, credit unions incur steep losses in reestablishing member safety following a data breach, whether online or otherwise. On average, credit unions in 2014 spent $136,000 on data security measures and $226,000 in costs associated with merchant data breaches, according to NAFCU.

A.N. Ananth, co-founder and CEO of security information and event management firm EventTracker described how a honeynet, a collection of honeypots − virtualized decoys that mimic desktops, servers, printers and other network technology – set up to invite attack can help study threat actors' behavior. These decoy networks help defray this cost by providing valuable intelligence about malicious activity brought against a credit union's network.