Prominent industry law firm Stark & Stark has teamed up with Right Size Solutions to ensure that its more than 900 advisory firm clients’ cybersecurity policies can stand up to regulatory scrutiny.
Right Size Solutions, which bills itself as an intelligent cloud technology firm providing business and technology management to the financial services sector, currently provides technology support — including cybersecurity-related policies — to its 85 advisor clients, according to Wes Stillman, Right Size’s founder and president.
Indeed, Stillman warns that advisors who fail to produce a written cybersecurity policy could find themselves with a deficiency noted during their routine exam based on new guidelines from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations.
OCIE’s National Exam Program released a risk alert in April providing BDs and advisors with a list of questions to help them assess their firms’ cybersecurity compliance, as well as a sample cybersecurity document request that they can expect to receive from the division.
Simultaneous to the release of the risk alert, OCIE said that it launched cybersecurity-related exams of more than 50 registered broker-dealers and RIA firms.
A Stark & Stark spokesperson told ThinkAdvisor that the law firm coordinated with Right Size Solutions to create a cybersecurity policy incorporating Right Size Solutions’ core capabilities. “Once Stark & Stark customizes this cybersecurity policy on behalf of an RIA firm, the cybersecurity policy will not only address the considerations provided in the April SEC/OCIE risk alert, but it will also reflect the RIA firm’s operational procedures as aligned with the particular cybersecurity methods that Right Size Solutions implements.”