Managed IT Support for Your Bottom Line
Wealth Management is all about diversifying your investments to manage the risks involved in volatile markets and political unrest. In today’s world of global business, and interconnectivity, the technological needs of just about every type of industry have changed dramatically from what they were twenty years ago. MSPs provide diversification of your technological assets to ensure your company is safe no matter how the world of cybersecurity and technology changes on the daily.
Without these crucial services that are provided by IT companies, imagine how unproductive and unadvanced we would be without the ability to work remotely or take advantage of technology as it consistently upgrades. Partnering with an MSP for your Wealth Management company is absolutely crucial to keep your clients PII secure, and your business practices compliant with FINRA.
Imagine a construction project where the management had to wait for huge packages of blueprints, technical specifications, and other job-related documents had to be mailed through the postal service instead of emailed and stored in a large capacity data management system.
Think about how waiting by the phone for an inside scoop would completely cripple a journalist or reporter’s ability to break stories and report quickly on various topics of interest. Without online resources and communication, they would always be behind the rest of the field. These are just two small examples of the fact that technology has now become necessary for every aspect of life- especially for Wealth Management firms!
We wanted to take a closer look at how Managed Service Providers (MSPs) work to help one particular industry; wealth management and financial services. We’ll also delve a little deeper into how IT solutions deal with the many functionalities and priorities it must address on a regular basis.
The Benefits of Having an MSP For Your Wealth Management Company
There are a number of universal services and features of an MSP that help businesses and individuals all across the spectrum of digital usage. Basic security protection, such as the use of firewalls, antivirus and antispyware programs, the detection and removal of malware, data storage, network upgrades, and other services are all ways in which this particular specialty of IT management can make life easier and more productive for everyone.
But in looking at the specific needs of financial service providers as well as wealth and asset management in particular, there are certain requirements of any Managed Service Provider (MSP) tasked with overseeing the Wealth Management company’s day-to-day operations.
Unique Aspects of Wealth Management Service Protection With an MSP
Even though there are several services MSPs provide that are highly beneficial to any type of wealth management business that handles financial planning and retirement. The confidential PII records of a wealth management company can be massive. This storage of massive amounts of data from an in-demand personal finance specialist, or basically anyone else in this highly diverse and specialized field, will need to beef up their protection efforts, particularly in cybersecurity and data management.
MSPs Decrease in Identity Theft and White-Collar Cybercrime for Wealth Management Companies
It is important to note that these types of companies face an incredible amount of attacks from hackers looking for easy financial gains, unscrupulous competitors looking to gain an edge or unsteady the confidence of clients in their current firm’s ability to safeguard their information. U.S.- based wealth management companies are a big target as well to foreign malicious actors that may want to wreak havoc on some of the wealthier citizens of the world.
Wealth Management Companies Naturally Provide Multiple Payoffs in One Central Location For a Cyberattack
One of the biggest factors in why organizations or individuals that provide long-term financial consulting and management have to be especially diligent about their security is because these firms represent numerous clients who possess great financial resources and very valuable assets. Without the help of an MSP that is closely monitoring all threats on your behalf as well as keeping vulnerable hardware and software updated, these threats become minimized exponentially.
Unlike accessing a few random bank accounts where you might find that the highest available balance could be a few hundred dollars, most victims in a cyber breach at a wealth or retirement financial services company would already have considerable portfolios, making every piece of data highly valuable. Finding an MSP who can thwart these threats is critical for having a successful wealth management firm.
MSPs Keep Up With Constantly Evolving Intrusion Tactics Deployed On Wealth Management and Financial Firms
Another reason Managed Service Providers are so critical to the security aspect of your company is because invasive software and digital “lock-picking” devices are being developed and refined daily. They target the financial industries before the techniques and software have had time to be analyzed and neutralized. This fact alone makes getting instant security updates, upgrades, and troubleshooting necessary. A qualified MSP will be able to constantly keep your security measures in check as well as notify your company of an attempted breach.
MSPs Protect The Security of Sensitive Information
There are multiple types of highly confidential information that MSPs deal with on a daily basis, both in this particular field and several others. Taking a look at this short but informative list will let you know how seriously they take the responsibility of protecting your client’s private data and how some of the most important industries in the world trust them to do so:
- Medical records
- Customer/Client data
- Proprietary business data
- Government data
Understanding that one of the main jobs of a Managed Service Provider is to exhaustively oversee the safety and security of every piece of data and information that their clients have. Many important organizations and industries rely on them to take care of these and many other technology-related needs. Wealth management companies should have the utmost confidence in their capabilities to not only protect you defensively but be proactive in their protection offensively.
How MSPs Serve on the Front Lines Against Cybersecurity Attacks For Wealth Management Companies
To better understand how MSPs and other Managed IT Security Service Providers perform these essential security functions, it is first necessary to understand the nature of the various types of strategies that cybercriminals employ in an attempt to gain access to private and confidential information.
Daily Assult to the Wealth Management Firm’s Firewall
First, highly prized systems that contain a large volume of valuable information by far the most attention from the immoral individuals that practice digital white-collar crimes. One of the techniques that they use it to set up non-stop remote attacks aimed at the firewall all day, every day. This is not so much to actually create a breach that can be exploited but to get a feel for what the security software is capable of. This collection of data will map out where vulnerabilities may lie for a successful future cyber assault.
Cybercriminals Switch Up Their Strategies
Secondly, these hackers and digital criminals rarely (if ever) use the same strategy twice. In fact, that is one of the tricks of their trade. By constantly feeding new malware, spyware, viruses, and every other type of digital thievery tool at their disposal, they are working hard to “distract” the IT security program. Making a minor intrusion on a different part of the network appear to be another outdated, minimal-threat invasion is exactly what they want. In reality, it is a cleverly disguised entrance into that prized database, or a successful mining of data to eventually get them there.
MSPs Constantly Monitor Attacks on Wealth Management Firms
MSPs provide the literal second by second attention it takes to each of these types of cyberattacks as well as the countless others being developed every day. To make sure that your wealth management organization’s sensitive records and data are uncompromised, it is vital for you to partner with a qualified MSP who can mitigate, protect, and deploy assistance within seconds of a security breach.
MSPs are able to do this by numerous daily updates and upgrades, rotating security commands, and monitoring individual aspects of the system that seem to be getting pinged with various random digital processes. There are several other well-known proprietary strategies and techniques that can be tailored to a wealth management company’s needs. These functions are simply too much for one, dedicated IT Support Technician or even an entire IT Department to handle on their own.
MSPs Provide Other Non-Security Benefits for Wealth Management Firms
It is also important to note some of the other essential services that a wealth management and financial advisory organization might have that don’t actually relate so much to cybersecurity. MSPs specialize in building efficient IT network infrastructure. The ability to store and organize massive amounts of data is also crucial as this sector of business is one of the most paperwork-laden sectors in existence.
Not only is it important to store and manage that vast cache of information, but all of it also needs to be backed up on some type of cloud infrastructure. This not only protects the data in the case of some type of cyber breach or keep business continuity during a natural disaster, it also preserves it in the rare case of a digital or real-world disaster with the MSP itself.
Besides data storage, you also have a number of other features that are also critical to the success of any type of financial services company. Things like email and correspondence organization and access, virtual helpdesks to provide employees with urgent IT solutions, as well as device management to allow consultants to easily navigate between laptops and desktops, mobile phones, and various other devices.
While these are by no means a comprehensive example of what kinds of services that MSPs offer to those who work in the wealth and asset management industries, they do offer a glimpse of how important it is to partner up with a Managed Service Provider or a Managed Security Services Provider as soon as possible. Contact Be Structured today to chat about what we can do to help your wealth management company thrive!
