During the first quarter of 2012, a new Balance and Transaction Reporting Standard from SWIFT and X9 is scheduled for introduction, according to X9, the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) accredited standards developer for national financial services standards. The standard, which currently goes by its acronym, BTRS, “will streamline communications between banks and their corporate customers, thus eliminating processing errors, reducing risk and automating cash management functions,” according to X9.

BTRS replaces BAI Version 2, which many organizations relied on to receive information about the cash management and treasury services provided by their banks and other vendors. more

In my last post, I discussed the contentious and confusing nature of cyber risks. In this post, I check in with an expert, Identity Theft 911 Senior Vice President of Data Risk Management Brian McGinley, to get a read on the most important facets of information security in the coming year. McGinley’s firm is a provider of organizational data risk management services.

Eric Krell: When it comes to budget considerations for 2012, what should risk managers and information security personnel keep in mind?

Brian McGinley: Data risk management should be front and center consideration for 2012. We are chasing cybercrime and are behind the curve in terms of protection and countermeasures. We unfortunately too often use an investment model of “too little — too late” and our organizations, customers and citizens are paying a high price for it. The cyber-threats are getting more and more insidious. What used to be a possibility is now a probability when it comes to the risk of damaging information security events and breaches impacting your organization. What you don’t know can and will hurt you — it is no longer a matter of “if” but rather a matter of “when.” more

Security concerns around IT systems seem to only get worse. Now organizations must contend with cloud computing, social networking, and mobile computing, all of which ratchet up security concerns. Of course, you can boost security but business will suffer. Restrict social networking and risk losing customers. Let managers access data from smartphones and risk compromising data.

“When Security is around, Productivity disappears. And when Productivity shows up on the scene, Security has to take a coffee break,” writes Aaron Weiss for Dell here.

Workers aren’t stupid. They feel the pressure from management to do more, work harder, work faster, no excuses. They know it is a tough economy; layoffs could come at any time. So they take shortcuts, and a handy place to find those shortcuts is security. How can you strike the right balance? more