This posting was written by Travis P. Nelson.

Our Data Security, Privacy & Management colleague, Timothy J. Nagle, recently wrote about an alert issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) regarding “Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks and Customer Account Fraud.” OCC Alert 2012-16 was in response to a recent series of attacks against national banks and federal savings associations by “various sophisticated groups.” It provides a general description of the attacks and recommendations for appropriate risk management measures. Financial institution clients should pay particular attention to comments in the Alert regarding staffing, vendor due diligence, reporting to law enforcement, and the need for effective communication with customers. For more information, please read entire posting.

Travis P. Nelson is a counsel in the Financial Services Regulatory Group at Reed Smith LLP, resident in the Princeton and New York offices, and a co-leader of the firm’s Financial Institutions Enforcement & Investigations Task Force. Prior to joining Reed Smith, Travis was an Enforcement Counsel with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, U.S. Treasury Department, in Washington, D.C. Travis is also adjunct faculty at Villanova University School of Law, and a frequent lecturer at national and regional banking conferences.