Financial advisors may wish to see cybersecurity as an essential issue on multiple levels.
Costly cyber-attacks affect the investments financial advisors make on behalf of their clients for protecting the data of their clients.
Some organizations may be more vulnerable to costly cyber-attacks than other companies.
“The sectors that I think carry the most amount of risk are health care, energy, and manufacturing,” said Jamil Farshchi, Equifax chief information security officer, at Financial Advisor Summit on Wednesday.
“Historically they haven’t invested as much and prioritized security as much as some of the other industries such as financial services or technology,” Farshchi said.
Charles Carmakal, Mandiant Chief Technology Officer said, “Part of the way to evaluate a company’s cyber risk is to consider what the real-world threats are against the line of business they’re in.”
Carmakal added, “Not all organizations have a similar threat as others. For instance, there are unique threats to health care that are very different from threats to defense contractors or government entities.”
He also considers it is important to look at the security maturity of the organization.
“A lot of companies that have had a major cybersecurity incident tend to be more secure after the fact than perhaps an organization that hasn’t lived through a major cybersecurity attack,” Carmakal said.
Both Equifax and Mandiant have been the victims of cyber-attacks.
Farshchi expressed, “The good news for investors is that corporate boardrooms appear to be more focused on cybersecurity than they once were. People are taking it more seriously. As a result, we’re getting more technology- and security-capable individuals in the boardroom.”
