Market Segment
Family offices must protect information about high net worth travel destinations and prevent targeting efforts. The most important thing is to support the family and their wealth. The family office is a prime target for cybersecurity breaches, and the risk is only increasing as many organizations require their employees to work remotely. Many family offices are paying attention to how to protect themselves.
The most common cybersecurity threats to Family Office expenses include ransomware, data theft, server access, and finally Business Email Compromise (BEC) targeting personnel. In addition, another threat to family management is the misuse of money flow. BEC events are typically phishing designed to trick people into clicking on malicious links, opening malicious documents, or revealing credentials to log into a company’s email system. Occurs via email. Once an attacker gains access to a company’s email system, it can be compromised by data theft, fraudulent wire transfers, fake capital call notifications, ransomware, and more.
In many cases, cybercriminals do more than create a breach in the family office. They are frequent offenders, and the family administration should be aware that if a cyber attacker gets access to their information, they may come after the attacker again and again.
Ransomware attacks doubled between 2019 and 2020, with 676 breaches including ransomware as an element of the attack. That’s a 100 percent increase from 2019, according to the data breach report at the end of 2020. The most common type of cyber security breach prevents someone from accessing their computer files, systems or networks and requires them to pay.
After the family and staff are educated on best practices, the onus is on the family office itself and the entire team, from leadership to staff. They need to ensure proper security, work with the right vendors, and ensure that all vendors they use have cyber security against malicious actors. Other best practices to be taught include encouraging the use of encrypted email, proper passwords, and two-step authentication.
Family offices should invest resources in cybersecurity, whether they hire dedicated IT personnel or work with outsourced IT providers. Many family offices don’t have professional security staff and often don’t even have full-time IT support. Dedicated IT professionals range from simple tasks like keeping software up-to-date to more detailed tasks like implementing best practices for passwords, password vaults, and secure communication with family office administrators.
The family office needs to have a well-thought-out incident response plan, and everyone involved, from family to staff, has a physical copy of the plan and knows what to do if they are the victim of an attack.
Family offices that have not prioritized cyber security because of the misconception that they will never fall victim to cost, complexity or data breaches are changing, especially given the deregulation of work due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a starting point, ensure that family offices are equipped with robust best practices to prevent breaches, such as training family and staff, hiring dedicated IT personnel to manage cybersecurity capabilities, and developing incident response plans. Implementation of many best practices is essential. Purchase a dedicated cyber security insurance and implement advanced security measures when working remotely. Implementing these guidelines will enable the family office to avoid attacks and provide strong controls to continue serving future generations.
Family offices must be cyber vigilant in this rapidly changing world.
To protect data, identity and wealth, cyber security should always be a top priority for the family office and the families they represent. Given the ever-increasing need for vigilance in these extraordinary times, we’ve rounded up trial-and-error methods to combat fraud and attacks, from technology changes to awareness and education.
The high visibility and public profile of the wealthy can be a prime target for cybercriminals. With easy access to personal information, social engineering attempts by fraudsters are easy and compelling.
Potential payments to fraudsters can be made through ransomware attacks that collect sensitive data about investments, or cybercriminals trying to blackmail individual or family offices with confidential information. Cyber security measures of family offices require special attention, as valuable reputations are often at stake.
Family Office’s main risks include employees currently working from home using potentially insecure Wi-Fi networks and devices with weak passwords. Additionally, organizations may be using new online applications and systems for file sharing and video conferencing without knowing how to keep their data secure or reduce their vulnerability to attacks.
Many cyber scams rely on people clicking on malicious links that give criminals access to information and systems. As a result, scammers use legitimate health and financial fears to sell scams, encouraging people to click on links and enter personal information. Some people pretend to be business partners updating their customers on a new banking process for a pandemic.
There are many tactics that family offices and their clients can implement to support existing security systems to protect them.
Employees need ongoing training on new and existing threats and how to prevent and detect them. Passwords are strong and should be backed up with multi-factor authentication. Companies should also use administrator privileges to make data available only to those who need access.
All family offices should test their IT environment for vulnerabilities and use internal or outsourced monitoring to detect unusual behavior. Security professionals can be very helpful advisors.
Backup on a secure and independent network. If your data is deleted, corrupted, or threatened with ransom, you can use it to recover your data and keep it operational.
Our goal is to help people in the best way possible. This is a basic principle in every case and cause for success. contact us today for a free consultation.
Sign up to our newsletter
