Tip #28: Sign up for SEC alerts.
Broker dealers, investment advisors and investment companies are not immune to cybersecurity threats, yet many in the startup arena don’t have dedicated resources to detect and respond.
That increases your risk that any cybersecurity incident like ransomware could be crippling to an organization, and you need to take measures to help maximize your resilience to such attacks.
Steps you can take
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations can be a great resource for broker dealers and investment advisors.
The OCIE regularly shares information on trends they are seeing across registrants and provide guidance on how you can be more prepared.
For example, on June 10, 2020, the OCIE released a Risk Alert for ransomware. This alert contains practical guidance on procedures the OCIE has seen in place at registrants to help mitigate the risk of ransomware.
Regularly check the OCIE website to see if new risk alerts related to cybersecurity for SEC registrants have been posted; also consider signing up with the OCIE for email updates so you can be alerted to new risk alerts.