Cybertheft is important to all investors, but especially to high-net-worth individuals who might have greater exposure, less knowledge and more endpoints of access for thieves, according to Aon’s Cyber Solutions CEO Jason J. Hogg.
In fact, more than half of 664 high-net-worth respondents of a 2017 Aon online survey said they had either experienced a cybersecurity event or knew someone who had.
Most interesting to Hogg was the survey found that 77% of respondents were concerned about risks posed to their finances by cybersecurity, and 78% were concerned about related issues on identity theft, numbers far above traditional financial worries such as market volatility (60%), or changing interest rates (39%).
“People are more concerned about cybersecurity than they are with regard to their actual wealth,” Hogg told ThinkAdvisor. “That was incredibly telling and most resonating to me.”
Be Proactive
Despite the high levels of concern with cybertheft, 55% of those surveyed didn’t know about cyber insurance, and only 5% had a solution in place in case they were attacked. Instead, most relied on virus and malware protections. But that doesn’t go far enough, Hogg said.
“Some tactical things people can do is making sure they have banking alerts set up so that if any type of financial transaction or activities [occur], they receive notification,” he said. He added that investors should work with credit bureaus to “lock up” their information.