Security Demystified: Navigating the Top 25 Frequently Asked Questions

Barry Thompson, the author of 101 Security Tips for the Beginning Security Officer, is known as “The Fraud Educator.” He has worked in the financial services industry for over three decades, holding the positions of security officer, compliance officer, treasurer, senior vice president, and executive vice president. He is the only fraud educator in his industry that has worked in senior management positions, which affords him unique insight into financial institutions.Over the course of his career, Barry handled over 900 security cases. He has been involved with investigations and prosecutions on the federal, state, and local levels, and has testified before grand juries, county courts, bankruptcy courts, family courts, and the New York State Supreme Court. As a security specialist for America’s Community Bankers*, Thompson was involved in all phases of organizing the National Operations, Technology and Security Conference, including designing and overseeing the conference’s security track, hiring conference speakers, and writing the conference manual. Barry is an in-demand, internationally-recognized speaker where he has made fraud, theft, and security presentations to groups throughout the country, in Europe, and at the United Nations. Recognizing the increasing importance of compliance in the banking industry, he became a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager in 1997. Barry has attended prestigious schools held by the American Bankers Association and America’s Barry Thompson “The Fraud Educator” Biography Community Bankers*. Among them are the National Trust School, held at Northwestern University, the National Compliance School, held at the University of Oklahoma and Emory University, and the Investment School at Fairfield University. He has put his knowledge and expertise to use as an instructor for both the Credit Union National Association’s Security Institute and the Tennessee Bankers Association’s Southeastern School of Banking held at Vanderbilt University. Barry is also a writer who contributes to Bankers’ Hotline, bankersonline.com, and other industry publications. He is the security and compliance “guru” for bankersonline.com, and has been interviewed by Newsweek, Consumer Reports, and other national and regional publications. Today, his firm focuses primarily on training at national and state conferences and conventions and in-house to banks and credit unions, from physical security to computer security. This includes in-depth instruction on identity theft, internal fraud, scams and schemes, conducting investigations, social media and bank robbery. To date, he has trained more than 26,000 financial professionals—and growing.