TD Ameritrade Joins cleverDome to Boost Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is a top concern of RIAs, and cleverDome's cooperative method is helping them get protection.
The No. 1 concern for RIAs in a recent TD Ameritrade Sentiment Survey was cybersecurity, and data security was to be a spending priority in 2019. To help its RIA customers, TD Ameritrade Institutional just integrated its Veo One platform with cleverDome, a B corporation co-op that offers community-based solutions to protect confidential client information.
CleverDome is software “defined as a perimeter,” Bridget Gaughan, co-founder and chief risk officer of cleverDome, told ThinkAdvisor. “[Our purpose is] to make a secure enclave, where information can be shared safely between unrelated parties, for example, TD Ameritrade and Orion, as a third-party vendor, and the RIAs.”
To do this, cleverDome has set up three components:
1) Due diligence of all the parties in the environment. In this case, cleverDome worked with industry members and cyber experts to develop a standardized due diligence review that everyone in the environment is bound by.
2) Secure connection. “Whether it’s a cellphone or an iPad or a computer, you want to be secure,” Gaughan said. CleverDome works with several managed security services, such as FCI, that will do what they call “cyber hygiene” on all devices to make sure they are secure.
3) Secure network. This final component is a military-grade secure technology network provided by NetFoundry and Dispersive Technologies.
This “inside the Dome” protection provides security of all client information and data shared among those in Veo One-intregrated technology solutions: Redtail, Riskalyze and Orion. However, cleverDome also includes those vendors in its cybersecurity dome as well as United Planners, Geneos, FCI and others.
TD’s managing director of technology solutions, Jon Patullo, said in a statement that “by taking critical data off the open internet, we can better protect data shared between multiple parties and help RIAs ensure their computers and mobile devices are protected when accessing client data anywhere, anytime.”
Gaughan noted that “the beauty of this solution and why it works, is everyone comes together as a community to solve a problem,” she said. “The more that join, the stronger it makes the financial services industry as a whole. Really, there’s no reason not to join … for advisors it means a faster and more secure network.”
To become a part of the cleverDome network, RIAs work directly with the company, or connect through a managed security services group or a broker-dealer. Cost is based on size of firm and number of devices.
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