Guaranty Bank Names Ken Johnston New Chief Information Security Officer

Guaranty Bank is pleased to announce that Ken Johnston was recently named its new Chief Information Security Officer.

"In today's environment, our bank's information security is as critical as it ever has been," said Carter Peters, Guaranty Bank's Chief Financial Officer. "We currently operate our security program in a satisfactory manner, but as we continue to grow and expand, satisfactory won't be good enough and additional resources will be required. We need better focus, direction and long-term planning to address all things related to information security."

In his new role, Johnston is responsible for the development, oversight and maintenance of Guaranty Bank's information security program. He will also establish and maintain a security operation that through automated and continuous monitoring will detect, contain and mitigate incidents that impair information security and the bank's information systems.

According to the American Bankers Association, banks across the country stopped $11 billion in fraud attempts in 2014, with attempted fraud against bank deposit accounts reaching $13 billion. Debit card fraud accounted for 66 percent of industry losses, followed by check fraud at 32 percent and electronic transactions such as wire and ACH the remaining 2 percent.

"Ken's skills and expertise are the ideal choice for taking our security needs to the next level," Peters said.

Johnston has been a vice president at Guaranty Bank since 2001, serving as Chief Technical Officer, Chief Information Officer and now Chief Information Security Officer. Before coming to Guaranty Bank Johnston was Director of Information Systems at John Q. Hammons Hotels and Resorts, a network and systems analyst and has been a course instructor for Missouri State University and Webster University.