For many union fund office administrators, cybersecurity is a subject that sits somewhere between overwhelming and invisible. The threats are real, the requirements are growing, and the technical vocabulary can feel like a foreign language. Kim Gustin knows that feeling well.

Gustin is the assistant administrator at IBEW LU124's benefit fund office in Kansas City, Missouri — a local with more than 3,700 members and a history stretching back to 1892. Her job is to ensure that employer contributions are properly administered and that the funds flow according to plan documents. Managing cybersecurity on top of it was never part of the plan.

The turning point: LU124 received Department of Labor guidance noting that the fund office needed to follow DOL cybersecurity guidelines. The local brought in a third-party security firm to evaluate where they stood. They produced a report with a long list of system improvements to work on but offered no assistance addressing them, leaving the fund office aware of all that could go wrong with no plan of action.

"I come to work, I focus on my job, and I don't have to wonder if I should be doing something with cybersecurity." - Kim Gustin, Assistant Administrator, IBEW Local 124

So Gustin reached out to LU124’s IT provider, Onsite Logic, and they worked through the list together. It quickly became clear the cybersecurity requirements facing union fund offices were substantial enough to warrant a dedicated solution engineered specifically for unions.

Motivated by all they'd learned — and the understanding that LU124 was far from the only union facing these issues — the Onsite Logic team set to work building a comprehensive cybersecurity solution tailored specifically to serve the unique needs of labor unions. That solution is Secure Unions.

For a busy fund office administrator, not having to think about cybersecurity at all is ideal. No news is good news — no breaches, no ransomware, no unauthorized access to sensitive member data. In that sense, Gustin's experience with Secure Unions has been a quiet success. 

"Working with Secure Unions is like a security blanket," Gustin said. "I never have to worry about cybersecurity issues. I come to work, I focus on my job, and I don't have to wonder if I should be doing something with cybersecurity."

Beyond day-to-day operations, there’s another dimension where the partnership pays off: regulatory audits. The DOL's cybersecurity guidance isn't merely advisory; it carries real compliance weight. For example, if a fund office experiences a cyberattack, and it's discovered that DOL cybersecurity best practices weren't adhered to satisfactorily, that fund office can face very serious — and very expensive — enforcement ramifications. 

For Gustin, knowing Secure Unions follows and documents adherence to DOL cybersecurity best practices means an audit doesn't have to be a crisis.

LU124's experience suggests finding the right partner — one that understands the specific compliance environment and operational culture of a union fund office — can make the difference between a mandate that feels like a burden and one that becomes a genuine asset. "Having Secure Unions on our side, I can focus on my job here and know they're keeping us safe in the cybersecurity space," Gustin said.

In a time when cybercriminals are increasingly targeting unions to swipe their vast caches of PII and PHI, and the DOL is tightening regulations in response, a partnership with trusted experts specializing in union cybersecurity provides more than peace of mind; it provides vital security for every union member and increased trust in union leadership.

The Secure Unions story didn't begin with a crisis. It began with a compliance notice, an honest assessment of what was missing, and a willingness to help. That is, in many ways, the ideal pathway — addressing vulnerabilities before they become incidents, rather than scrambling to respond after the fact.

For Gustin, the bottom line is simple: her job is to manage the numbers, administer the funds, and serve the members. Cybersecurity is someone else's area of expertise, and now, it’s being handled by people who specialize in exactly that.