In our 1st Quarter 1991 newsletter, FOX interviewed the Laird Norton family office, which at that time had become a Private Trust Company and had been serving outside clients for several years. Now a firmly established Multifamily Office, Larid Norton discusses how their firm has evolved.
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Families of wealth and business-owning families report that privacy and security of personal and financial data is a concern, yet few report confidence that these risks have been mitigated. This guide is designed to help families, family offices, and family enterprises integrate a security strategy in a code of conduct framework that is responsive to the family’s risk and intrusion tolerance that comes with living in a digital world.
In today’s hyperconnected world, news headlines are filled with stories about identity exposure, data breaches and other major threats to your personal information and financial assets. This guide provides best practices, resources, and actionable advice to help you protect yourself or recover from a cyberattack.
Are you maximizing protection when it comes to your online activity?
The hedge fund industry got started in Greenwich when the location offered access to the best talent, tax and business incentives, and proximity to key executives’ homes. These important factors and the trend towards a private investment model have been shifting and accelerating the location of hedge funds and private equity firms to Palm Beach County. Location might be everything, but without the right talent it doesn’t mean anything. A well-planned talent strategy can mitigate the risk of disruption to both productivity and company culture.
Strong cybersecurity for protecting sensitive client data is a critical capability for any Registered Investment Advisor firm. In 2013, Hardy Reed—one of the first firms to earn the Center for Fiduciary Excellence certification—considered cloud services as an option for its IT needs. They wanted to look at alternate options to replacing their in-house server. Two factors were particularly important: heightened security concerns for protecting client information and the need to enable advisors and staff to serve clients while on the road.
Cybercriminals targets the financial industry 300 times more frequently than any other industry, resulting in mega breaches and millions of records stolen through hacktivism, malware, social engineering, phishing, and other applications. The harsh consequences of remaining vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches are costly, and the number one threat to cybersecurity is the uninformed employee. As cybercrime becomes commonplace, it’s essential to learn about the current cybersecurity landscape, the tools a financial firm needs, and best practices for keeping your firm protected.
Recognize that a cyber attack will occur at some point during a business lifecycle. Whether it is through web attacks, email phishing, exploit kits, point of sale, keystroke logging, or ransomware, the bad actors have figured out how to defeat your latest defense against a cyber attack. They know what will make you click on the link that will give them the beachhead into your computer system.
Cloud-based applications, also known as Software as a Service (SaaS), offer significant benefits. They are highly affordable, require minimal IT involvement, have no hardware requirements, and offer great flexibility. Yet there can be significant risks to a firm if it does not review vendors carefully. Unfortunately, security controls vary significantly from one SaaS provider to the next. Knowing what to look for when selecting SaaS vendors and implementing sound security measures will help protect your firm against a data breach and the significant repercussions that come with it.
While the revolution of the “information age” creates tremendous advantages and helps accelerate innovation, it brings with it new risks—namely cyber attacks. While corporate attacks get most of the media attention, do not forget that individuals—especially the high net worth—need to be vigilant about cyber security. The good news is that you can protect yourself against cyber risks.