The Cyber Certificate for Financial Advisers that can Help Convert More Prospects

Technology has become undeniably critical to wealth managers, but clients are looking to their advisers for more than just online valuations and digital communications.

There is now a growing focus on providers protecting their personal data during (and after) the course of the relationship, and it’s become increasingly obvious that the government and regulators are listening.

We see clear signs of this in the growing synchronicity of government legislation and cybersecurity programmes, such as Cyber Essentials, which we’ll be examining in today’s article.

Getting certified might help you sign up more clients and retain the ones you already have. 

What is Cyber Essentials?

Cyber Essentials is an effective, Government-backed scheme that helps you to protect your organisation, whatever its size, against a whole range of the most common cyber-attacks. It can be considered a minimum standard framework relating to cyber security, which will reduce the risk of data breaches, helping to prevent unauthorised access to both company and client data, and minimise the damage in the event of a breach. 

Why should financial advisers consider getting Cyber Essentials certified?

The Cyber Essentials certificate demonstrates to prospective and existing clients that you take the security of their data seriously, increasing trustworthiness and credibility. This helps advisers to acquire more clients and maintain those relationships, leading to higher client retention. The certificate also reduces the risk of data breaches relating to company data, protecting from an array of cyber threats, which can be extremely costly either in lost productivity due to downtime or expensive in the event of regulatory censure.

How can you get Cyber Essentials certified?

Cyber Essentials certification is obtained by ensuring your technology is suitably secure and then applying to the National Cyber Security Centre (and paying a small annual fee). The application is essentially a checklist of required security settings, including user access controls, malware protection, and patch management. To ensure a successful application, we strongly recommend having a security expert run through your controls to ensure compliance before applying.

If you’d like to read more about the scheme, you can check out the Cyber Essentials page on the National Cyber Security Centre website here - Cyber Essentials - NCSC.GOV.UK.

If you’d like to work with Buchanan Technology on getting your company Cyber Essentials certified, we support businesses through every aspect of the process, including preparing required documentation and updating appropriate security settings. Any shortfalls are addressed prior to the submission to ensure success.

In conclusion, if you'd like to convert more prospects, you might want to think about adding the Cyber Essentials checkmark to the bottom of your website and marketing materials to help demonstrate that you take data privacy seriously. 

Stay secure and keep your data protected.