In a previous post, we discussed what those risks could look like, and we started out by identifying the important assets IFA firms need to protect. We know your individual firm is probably different to others. Perhaps you offer a fully remote working model, use different investment platforms or focus on a niche segment of the market. We use the fact-find session to thoroughly understand your IFA firm and start to identify which technology you use, the products you offer and your business goals.
We also know that strong security hygiene isn’t built overnight, which is why our services help IFA firms improve their security month by month. We will start by understanding the risks, and developing a basic security improvement plan. Each month, we will work with you to implement small changes which can be made without any additional charges, such as new processes around data security.
Having decentralised data storage makes it hard to secure, hard to manage who has access and even harder to back up critical data. We will look to help you consolidate the data and manage access so it is restricted and monitored. Once any high priority fixes from the plan are in place, we will look at more proactive measures such as building a basic business continuity plan so your firm knows how to act if things go wrong.
Although we rarely make recommendations that cost money outside of our services, we do recommend that IFA firms have some basic controls in place such as anti-malware software on company devices.
In addition to the monthly meetings, Kloudwerk provides a detailed monthly security footprint scan for your website, password breach checks and more. This way, we can keep an eye on what the hackers are seeing from the outside, whilst we work with you on securing the inside.
Kloudwerk works with you to help you keep the cyber criminals out. We offer affordable cyber security consultancy packages for business customers. Please visit our Cyber Consultancy page for more information.
