The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has just announced that a financial advisory firm in the US will pay $1 million to settle charges after weakness in its cybersecurity policies and procedures helped cyber intruders gain access to the personal information of thousands of customers. You can read the full article here.
While this charge has been laid against a US firm, in February 2018, similar laws have been introduced in Australia (Notifiable Data Breach Scheme) that can result in significant fines if a company has a data breach.
As an industry that provides personal advice, it’s likely that you will be storing sensitive financial and medical information for a number of your clients. This information is valuable to hackers and it’s why we believe there is a very real cyber threat for the financial planning industry.
Cyber insurance can help financial planners mitigate against the risk of a breach and potentially a resulting fine since the underwriting process can identify gaps in cyber security plans and operations, in additional to providing financial support and access to specialist privacy lawyers, computer and IT forensic investigators and crisis management teams.
No firm is too small or too large to be hacked. The question is, can you afford to be?
Cover starts from $900 pa. Call us today to discuss.