River Valley Credit Union earns “A” Online Brand Rating for safeguarding its brands and consumers from ID Theft and Phishing

Miamisburg, Ohio – November 29, 2006 – River Valley Credit Union of Miamisburg, Ohio is the first credit union to earn the “A” Online Brand Rating™ from the IP Governance Task Force based on current intellectual property governance standards from the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the National Credit Union Agency and proposed standards from Identity Theft Red Flag rules for safeguarding brands and consumers from corporate id theft and phishing. The firm has successfully implemented the IP Governance operational risk management system. This synchronizes internal controls, regulatory compliance, board reports, privacy and security disclosures, daily monitoring and risk remediation to the “A” Online Brand Rating™. The “A” Rating indicates RVCU has invested in its brands to gain control of confusingly similar domain names, owned by unauthorized parties, and is constantly monitoring to safeguard its brand and consumers from fraudulent domain names and web sites – all forms of corporate identity theft. By safeguarding its brands and information technology systems per federal standards, RVCU’s privacy and security statement is accurate and RVCU has qualified for membership within the portal of www.ProtectingConsumersOnline.com, a service of the IP Governance Task Force.

“As President and CEO with fiduciary responsibilities to safeguard River Valley Credit Union’s brands and consumers from identity theft attacks, we are setting the tone at the top by recalibrating our priorities to prevent, detect and correct infringing uses of our brands. Recent remediation efforts have improved our Online Brand Rating from ”F“ to ”B“ to ”A“. Protecting consumers online is part of our mission to earn their trust and online business.” John E. Bowen, President and CEO, River Valley Credit Union, Miamisburg, Ohio.

“We applaud this company for protecting consumers, as well as its own brand, by taking action to prevent identity thieves from using its name to trick people into providing their personal information, and we call on other companies to do the same,” states Susan Grant, Vice President, Public Policy of National Consumers League and Director, National Fraud Information Center.

Recent surveys from the Anti-Phishing Working Group show phishing and the fraudulent use of corporate domain names in related fake web sites are rapidly growing. 48% of phishing attacks use corporate brand names in the web address or domain name to defraud consumers. As a result, consumer confidence in online banking is fragile and declining according to surveys by Pew, Gartner and the UK’s Financial Services Authority.

Research from the IP Governance Task Force shows many financial firms are failing to prevent the fraudulent use of their brand names within web addresses or domain names per federal regulations and standards issued by federal banking agencies under Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. This is contributing to the rapid growth of phishing. The research is based on data-mining technology and professional analysis. The process identifies and compares how well or poorly firms protect their brands and trademarks from infringing domain names owned by unauthorized parties that are confusingly similar and eligible for remediation under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). Brands that have significant exposure to confusingly similar domain names, owned by unauthorized parties that seek to deceive, divert and or defraud consumers, earn the “F” Online Brand Rating. Brands that have minimal exposure to this class of risk earn the “A” Online Brand Rating. The estimated investment required to achieve an “A” Online Brand Rating is an average of .15% of the net income for 2004 and 2005 for banks with assets ranging from $74 million to $200 billion. For smaller banks, the estimated investment is less than 1% while for the largest banks, the estimated investment is less than .08% of net income for 2004 and 2005.

The IP Governance Task Force was formed in 2006 by industry thought-leaders in intellectual property from law, accounting and technology firms to organize international, federal and state regulations on phishing, information security and COSO’s enterprise risk management model into a coordinated set of research and management services. One core objective is to feature IP Governance as a complementary discipline to IT Governance for Boards of Directors who have a fiduciary responsibility and duty of care to safeguard intellectual property, especially in this digital age.

A special service provided by the Task Force is the IP Governance Operational Risk Management, Quantification and Rating Model. This quantifies for Boards of Directors and senior management: (1) exposure to IP operational risks under GLBA, ID Theft Red Flag Rules and Basel II and (2) a remediation budget for achieving and maintaining a targeted Online Brand Rating ranging from “F” (non-compliance) to “A” (compliance). IP operational risks include potential civil or regulatory litigation due to non-compliance with state and/or federal regulations on information security issues for safeguarding intellectual property, i.e., brands, domain names and customer identifying information from fake web sites, including related phishing sites.

Members of the IP Governance Task Force serving River Valley Credit Union include Bone McAllester Norton PLLC and TrademarkBots.com, Inc. The members provide a turnkey set of Guardian IP management services that include 24x7 monitoring for new risks, legal advice and remediation of infringing domain names, monthly board reports and fresh Online Brand Ratings as part of a fixed-premium service agreement. Paul Kruse, Esq. of Bone McAllester Norton PLLC states: “We congratulate River Valley Credit Union for proactively safeguarding its brand and trademark as part of its Information Security Program per federal regulations and standards.”

About River Valley Credit Union
River Valley Credit Union, located in Miamisburg, Ohio, was founded in 1948 under the name of Daymon Federal Credit Union to serve a single group of employees. It is now a $120+ million credit union serving more than 300 groups and four Ohio counties in Butler, Greene, Montgomery and Warren Counties. It is a full-service financial institution with one goal -- the total satisfaction of each of its members.

About the IP Governance Task Force:
The IP Governance Task Force is a multi-disciplinary team of IP professionals in the United States and United Kingdom providing a coordinated IP Governance solution that includes management, education, advisory, legal, data-mining, remediation, insurance, and rating services.

Contact Information:

Beckwith B. Miller, President
IP Governance Task Force
TrademarkBots.com, Inc.
5100 Tamiami Trail North, Suite 105
Naples, Florida 34103
239-777-4638
miller@ipgovernance.com

Web Addresses:
www.ipgovernance.com
www.onlinebrandrating.com
www.protectingconsumersonline.com

Contact Information

John Bowen

President

River Valley Credit Union

Contact via E-mail