3 Things We Are Doing to Defend Against Hackers
We at Ambassador Wealth Care for You by Caring about Cybersecurity[1]
You gave us a serious responsibility to take care of you. Part of that responsibility includes guarding the security of your accounts.
Since we became a registered investment advisor (RIA) firm in 2017, Ambassador Wealth has invested significant resources in reviewing and upgrading security measures to defend against outside intruders.
While there are no guarantees against hacking attacks, we will do all we can to make us a difficult target for cybercrime. Here are 3 key examples of how we defend against cyberattack.
We Care about the Security of Our IT Infrastructure
After conducting a comprehensive review in early 2018, we made some upgrades to our IT infrastructure. Examples include:
- Physical protection of our networks and servers
- Frequent data backup both on and off premises
- Putting our corporate website on a more secure https[2] domain
Additionally, we invested resources in doing a thorough vetting of our business partners. We sought to understand how well their security efforts measured up to industry standards.
We Ourselves Needed and Got Outside Help for Cybersecurity
As an RIA firm, we are one of the most highly regulated industries in America. While that imposes costs and extra work, there are some benefits as well. One benefit is that it challenges us to think through key business issues deeply. One of those includes cybersecurity.
We recognized that we are not IT experts on our own. So, we brought in business partners who can use their expertise to help us.
One consultant monitors our networks 24/7. That includes things like backing up our data on and offsite, updating our hardware and software defenses against cyber attacks, and ongoing review of our current hardware and software needs.
Another consultant specializes specifically in cybersecurity for financial service companies. Their expertise has been instrumental in educating us on our role in cybersecurity. We have instituted a continuing cybersecurity education program for our employees, which includes mock “phishing” Emails and other simulated attacks to review and upgrade our defenses. Also, we have instituted better procedures to deal with a variety of issues, including contingency planning.
We Enforce Firewalls around Your Money
Those of you who have worked with us for a while will be quite familiar with this defensive measure. While it has been around for a while, we still think it is worth mentioning.
Whenever someone wants money transferred from their account, you will receive a phone call from us. We do not simply comply with Email or voicemail instructions. We want to follow up with you personally to verify your identity and confirm your request.
In addition, do not be offended if we ask you a few personal questions to make sure it is really you. It is because we care about your security.
Another subtle but important point is that you cannot conduct any transactions on your My Wealth portal. It is simply a way for you to monitor balances in your accounts and to receive communication from us. That is important because it provides one less opportunity for intruders to try to gain access to your funds.
[1] https://www.techopedia.com/definition/24747/cybersecurity accessed on September 27, 2018.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTPS accessed on September 27, 2018.