Independent broker-dealer ProEquities, a unit of Protective Life Corp. with about 700 affiliated financial advisors, says it has rolled out a cybersecurity platform to help protect advisor and client data in cooperation with the software maker Entreda.
The platform offers advisors cyber protection — such as against phishing attacks — for advisors and their investor clients, including those using mobile devices to access information. It also offers customized training to advisors based on their computing habits and back-end reporting technology.
A recent survey of broker-dealers conducted by the financial services research group Dalbar and ThinkAdvisor found that 74% of firms rely on the same authentication practices they've had for the past five years, with just 4% planning to adopt new practices.
"Financial advice firms and their advisors are operating in an era of escalating cybersecurity risk and are increasingly targeted by hackers who are both sophisticated and focused," according ProEquities President and CEO Chris Flint. "Unfortunately, much of our industry continues to rely on siloed cybersecurity systems, cobbled together across multiple service providers, that offer patchwork solutions to strategic challenges."
