TIB Ticker - Are You Safe at Home?

January 10, 2013Daily Rates & Viewpoints From the Officers & Staff of TIB.

Are You Safe at Home?

If you work for a security-minded organization, you should be almost continually reminded of the dos and don’ts of network security and acceptable use of company network resources. As an employee of a financial institution, information security should always be your top priority, particularly when dealing with your customers’ sensitive data. You must also remember to view all of your customers’ data as if it were your own information, and treat it as such. All of these attitudes should extend to your personal computing life as well, particularly when surfing the web or accessing your bank accounts online via a wireless network, whether accessing the sites from your personal computer or a mobile device. Here are a few tips to ensure your home wireless setup is as secure as possible. Procedures to implement some of these tips will vary based on your wireless equipment manufacturer.

1. Be sure to disable your SSID broadcast. SSID is the name of your wireless network. If your equipment is set to ‘broadcast’ this information, you are basically advertising the fact that your network is available for a connection attempt. Hiding your SSID is a big step in the right direction.

2. Change the default SSID. Every wireless router is assigned a default SSID out of the box. For example, Lynksys router’s default SSID is, ‘lynksys’. Very easy to guess (or Google). So, coupled with disabling the broadcast, you should also be sure to change the default SSID.

3. Change the default administrator password. Just as your router is assigned a default SSID, it is also assigned a default password (sometimes, no password at all!). Be sure to change this to a hard-to-guess password to avoid router configuration tampering. Default password settings for most routers are readily available with a quick Google search.

4. Enable MAC address filtering. A MAC address is a unique identifier assigned to every network interface card by the manufacturer. Specifically allowing only certain MAC addresses will ensure no unknown device will be allowed to connect. There is a bit of maintenance involved with managing the MAC address list if you frequently add or remove devices, but this added protection is well worth the effort.

5. Turn on encryption! (on your wireless router). Encrypting your connection will ensure your transmissions are not readable should they be captured. Be sure to use a strong encryption key/password.

6. Assign static IP addresses to devices. This one is optional, and more advanced, but a good idea nonetheless. Wireless routers will typically default to using DHCP, which means, the router will give your device an IP address automatically from a pool of addresses. Turning off DHCP and setting static IPs will prevent the possibility of a potential attacker having the ability to grab an IP address and attempt a connection.

7. Enable firewalls on computers and router. Simply turn on your Windows firewall as a first step, and also activate the firewall feature of your router. Your anti-virus application may include a firewall option, so consider this as well.

8. Turn off wireless if not used! If your computer(s) are connected to your router with a cable, and you are certain there are no devices using wireless access, be sure to check your router settings to ensure wireless access is turned OFF.

As a final tip, it is always a good idea to take advantage of any multi-factor authentication options (hard or soft tokens for one-time-passwords) offered by your financial institution and, if possible, designate a PC in your home for the single purpose of personal banking and use other devices for social media and general internet browsing activities.

Greg Clayton
Sr. Vice President/IT Director
gclayton@mybankersbank.com

Market Levels @ 7:05 AM CST

TIB Fed Funds & MMDA Rates - Previous Day
Agent	0.20%	Prin	0.05%	MMDA	0.30%
Agent	0.20%	STAR Prin	0.10%	STAR MMDA	0.35%

Key Indices/Commodities
1 - Month LIBOR	0.20%	Dow Jones	13390.51
3 - Month LIBOR	0.30%	NASDAQ 100	3105.81
1-Yr LIBOR	0.82%	S&P 500	1460.30
1-Yr CMT	0.13%	Spot Gold	1662.00
Prime	3.25%	Spot Silver	30.44
3-yr LIBOR Swap/Offer	0.49%	Spot Crude Oil	94.09
5-yr LIBOR Swap/Offer	0.90%	CRB Index	293.97
3 Mo - Fed Fund Futures	99.87%	6 Mo - Fed Fund Futures	99.87%

US Treasury Yields		US Non-Callable Agency Yields
Yield	Maturity	Yield	Spread
0.00%	90 - Days
0.00%	180 - Days
0.19%	2 - Year	0.26%	7bp
0.33%	3 - Year	0.35%	2bp
0.75%	5 - Year	0.90%	15bp
1.86%	10 - Year	2.12%	26bp
3.06%	30 - Year
167 BPs		Yield Curve(2's-10's)

Sample 1x Callable Agency Issues
Description	Call Date	YTC	YTM
FHLB 1.75 7/30/21	1/15	1.75%	1.75%

Select MBS Levels
Description	Coupon	Yield	Spread/Duration*
15-Yr FNMA	3.00%	1.29%	79 / 3.45
30-Yr GNMA	3.50%	2.11%	84 / 6.01
*Duration @ 12 month Historical CPR

Morning Commentary:	Blake Scharlach
Today’s a marginal “risk-on” day today after good economic data out of China, the ECB staying pat on interest rates, and US economic data that is just OK. Chinese exports and credit rose significantly, and the euro gained strength after Mario Draghi announced that rates wouldn’t change and that there was “a significant improvement in financial market conditions” in Europe. As for US economic data, the RBC Consumer Outlook Index rose from 46.9 in December to 48.0 in January. Initial jobless claims came in higher than forecast at 371K versus a projected 365K. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the week fell to -34.4 from -31.8 for the week ended January 6. Wholesale inventories were better than projected at 0.6% versus a projected 0.2%. The yield on the 10 year Treasury rose back to 1.90%, and the Dow is up 50 in the first 45 minutes of trading. There aren’t any major economic releases tomorrow, so we’re likely to slide into the weekend without a lot of volatility, unless we see some external catalyst.

Morning Commentary:

Blake Scharlach

Today’s a marginal “risk-on” day today after good economic data out of China, the ECB staying pat on interest rates, and US economic data that is just OK. Chinese exports and credit rose significantly, and the euro gained strength after Mario Draghi announced that rates wouldn’t change and that there was “a significant improvement in financial market conditions” in Europe. As for US economic data, the RBC Consumer Outlook Index rose from 46.9 in December to 48.0 in January. Initial jobless claims came in higher than forecast at 371K versus a projected 365K. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the week fell to -34.4 from -31.8 for the week ended January 6. Wholesale inventories were better than projected at 0.6% versus a projected 0.2%. The yield on the 10 year Treasury rose back to 1.90%, and the Dow is up 50 in the first 45 minutes of trading. There aren’t any major economic releases tomorrow, so we’re likely to slide into the weekend without a lot of volatility, unless we see some external catalyst.

Information contained herein is based on sources we believe to be reliable but its accuracy is not guaranteed. Customers should rely on their own outside counsel or accounting firm for specific circumstances. The securities, yields or levels discussed herein are for illustration purposes and are not guaranteed, not obligations of any bank, thrift or other entity and are not insured by the FDIC.

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