September 2019
Dear Wealth Management Group, LLC Family,
Beginning in 2016, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has designated every October National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM), in an effort to raise awareness of safer online activities. According to DHS, “NCSAM 2019 will emphasize personal accountability and stress the importance of taking proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity at home and in the workplace.”
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Protecting the confidentiality of your family’s information is a top priority for all associates at Wealth Management Group, LLC. Our policies, procedures, systems and business partners reflect best practices in safeguarding your data. White collar criminal efforts have continued to increase in volume and are becoming more difficult to identify.
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Your expectations should be that your personal information will be compromised at some time, as there are no guaranteed methods to prevent it. In 2019, scams will approach 50% of all cell phone calls made, and in 2018 alone there were over 1,000 breaches impacting nearly 58 million records.
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Yet, as stated by the DHS, each of us is personally accountable for protecting information about our families and ourselves. Information security cannot rest only on the institutions that you patronize. Our personal data is mercilessly sought from fraudsters globally every day. In high probability, you have already been a victim of a data breach, even if you are not aware of it.
It is estimated nearly every American adult, 147 million of us, had personal information compromised when Equifax was breached in September 2017.
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Since that time countless more people have had personal data compromised. Capital One, Yahoo, AOL, Marriott/Starwood, Target, Anthem, Home Depot, Inc., Facebook, eBay, Inc., Sony PlayStation, and many companies have had their systems breached. Those hacking successes don’t account for the phone calls, emails and text messages that you receive from scammers seeking to gain access to your personal information. An example? Some of our own clients have been contacted by fraudsters misrepresenting Charles Schwab. They received text messages informing them their bank card had been compromised and were led to a fraudulent website link to resolve the issue. Cybersecurity criminals never stop implementing creative methods to gain access to our personal information for their financial gain.
At
Wealth Management Group, LLC
, we pledge to continue doing everything possible to protect your information, though our efforts alone are not sufficient. Please do not delay in protecting yourself and your loved ones, as new victims of online fraud are created daily.
If you would like any assistance whatsoever in discussing and implementing safeguards to protect your information, please contact your advisory team at your earliest convenience. We are here to help.
Thank you for your ongoing trust, confidence and relationship.
Our best,
Wealth Management Group, LLC
