By Sam | September 11, 2018

What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Credit Union Security Consultant?

Pulling in a third party to bolster your security needs will increase your overhead a little bit. In today’s blog post, we’ll take a look at three reasons why hiring a credit union security consultant may be worth it in the end.

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Popular bars employ certified security personnel as bouncers to keep the riff-raff at bay. The president’s secret service members provide a constant additional layer of safety. Even evil masterminds populate their underground lairs with henchmen. The fact of the matter is if you’re trying to operate in peace, but you’re also exposed to the myriad of unknown public and private forces, you may want to consider hiring a third-party security consultant. Here’s why:

1) They Are Not Bound by Political Ties

Of course, this isn’t to say that the security experts don’t vote in elections; rather, they have no vested interest in the inter- and intra-office politics going on in your credit union. While some staff are tasked with many duties, and some departments may occasionally struggle against each other for funding or influence, security consultants have only one job: they’re there to protect the interests of the credit union, and that’s that.

Because security specialists aren’t integral to daily operations and are hired on a contractual basis, they know that the success of the credit union is fundamental to their success.

Plus, security is a full-time job. Third-party security consultants have no other responsibilities or obligations, so their attention doesn’t waver. They keep an eye on things so that your IT department can focus its energies elsewhere.

2) They Are Not Beholden to the Hiring Organization

This one is related to the first in many ways, but there’s some nuance to it. At no point must a security consultant protect their position from the organization. Whereas an IT member tasked with security might capitulate to the whims of superiors inside or outside their department, a third-party security consultant needn’t worry about workplace hierarchies or power structures. Their only obligation is to perform their job to the best of their ability.

Being an outside consultant means they can bypass some of the bureaucracy inherent to any business, and they may be able to speak more candidly to boot.

3) They Are More Objective

Owing to their specialization in delivering one service, third-party groups are highly knowledgeable about what security entails. As a result of their experience, they can cut through any doubts or red tape to objectively assess a security situation. This, in turn, translates to more credibility when discussing a credit union’s security needs.

We’ve seen third-party security consultants achieve more success than internal staff in a couple of areas. First, they tend to get approvals for higher budgets because their word is taken more seriously. Second, boards of directors tend to give more weight to the opinions of outside consultants, which can help credit unions get access to additional resources they need to stay protected.

There are numerous benefits to hiring a security consultant for your credit union. We listed a few major ones, but if you’d like to know more about third-party security options, check out our solutions for information security.

If you would like more information, please fill out the short form below and a member of the Ongoing Operations team will contact you shortly.