Cyber security breaches are rare among investment advisory firms registered with U.S. states, but improvements to technology and procedures could still bolster protection of client information, state securities regulators said on Wednesday. Just 4 percent of advisers reported having a "cyber security incident" during the years in which they have been registered in their respective states, according to a study by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). The incidents were as diverse as website breaches and hackers impersonating clients via email. Theft and unauthorized use of confidential data were problems for 1 percent of advisers, NASAA said. The study did find problems, however. For example, nearly a third of advisers that contact clients via email do not send messages through a secure system that prevents them from being read by hackers and other third parties. Also, fewer than half of the firms surveyed, or 44 percent, had policies, procedures and
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