Data security: What advisers need to know

This week the new privacy laws have come into force, meaning it is more important than ever for advisers to take responsibility for their clients' data.

Friday, December 4th 2020, 6:00AM

by Daniel Smith

When the new privacy laws came into force this week a new onus was put on the keepers of client data to make sure that it does not fall into the wrong hands.

As advisers know, the data held by those in financial services is particularly sensitive. For those criminally minded it is a prize that can lead to lucrative gains on places such as the dark web.

This is why it has never been more important for data security to be at the heart of business response planning, especially for financial advisers.

This latest feature from ASSET magazine dives into the world of data security, looking hard at what it means to get it right, and just what can happen when you get it wrong.

One of the experts we spoke to was John Bolton, founder and director of Squirrel, who said that a data breach is an “existential event. There are very few events out there that can kill your business. This is one of them.”

Data security expert Marc Barlow, consulting partner at InPhySec, told ASSET that “the criminal’s motivation is financial gain, to achieve that they are going to go where they can get the biggest bang for their buck. The financial sector is the obvious choice.”

ASSET also spoke to Petra Lucioli, claims manager from Delta Insurance who sees the fallout from a data security breach as businesses try to recover. Lucioli said that fraudsters are getting smarter.

“They are carrying out investigations into their victims, finding out their weaknesses and creating ransomware that focuses on that. Even the amount of money that they are claiming as ransom is specifically targeted at the organisation.”

To find out how financial services businesses can protect themselves from a data security breach, read the latest ASSET feature here.

Tags: data security Delta John Bolton privacy scam security