Wealth management and other financial services firms have a unique set of challenges when it comes to data security, privacy and compliance. The range of personal and financial information that is captured and stored makes this type of service provider a prime target for cybercriminals. Detailed personal data that includes a complete financial picture of high net worth individuals can be worth thousands of dollars on the dark web. Here are 5 of the top cybersecurity risk factors that face today’s wealth management firms.

  1. Email & Data Security

Sharing personal information via email is never recommended, but financial services organizations need to take particular care to protect the information of their clients. Email breaches are on the rise in this sector, with financial services experiencing the second-highest cost of data breaches — right after healthcare. Even though organizations are spending dramatically more money on protection, they are still experiencing data breaches at an unprecedented rate.

  1. 3rd Party Vendor Risk

Working with a third-party vendor brings a variety of risks to your organization: the risk that you won’t receive exactly what you expected, the risk that changes in the market will make the changes irrelevant — and now the dramatically increased risk that your business will be impacted by a breach to your vendor’s systems. It’s increasingly important that any vendor with access to your environment or data maintains an aggressive security posture or you take a chance on an infiltration coming in through your vendor’s systems or access points.

  1. Employee Training & Awareness

There are three key root causes of data breaches: malicious or criminal attacks account for 48% of breaches, 25% are caused by system glitches and a full 27% are caused by human error. This could include everything from poor passwords to allowing individuals to maintain access to information that they no longer need for business reasons. Lack of employee training and awareness of the various risk factors are the biggest contributors to cybersecurity events.

  1. SaaS/Public Cloud Breaches

Cybercriminals are always looking for opportunities to infiltrate organizations who have access to extensive customer data. Software-as-a-Service and other cloud-based providers make a broad target, simply because they are connected to so many other businesses that hackers are minimizing the risk by infiltrating a single organization. Just as with other vendors, it’s crucial that you only work with organizations that are extremely proactive in their cybersecurity measures.

  1. Password Hygiene, Lack of 2FA/MFA

No matter how strong your cybersecurity, it’s a safe assumption that nearly any password or service can be compromised. The combination of a simple username and password is no longer robust enough to protect your organization. Two-factor or multi-factor authentication is required to protect against password compromise. With multi-factor authentication, biometric and other information is utilized to provide secondary confirmation of the identity of the individual.

Protecting your organization’s information has never been more challenging. The support of a trusted technology partner is a crucial ingredient in any successful cybersecurity strategy. Contact the professionals at Coretelligent today at 855-841-5888 or fill out our quick online form for a free initial consultation.

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