TD Ameritrade wrapped up its elite advisor conference in San Diego Thursday with a sobering message about cybersecurity.
 
Mike Rogers, the former chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and a security commentator for CNN, warned advisors about powerful nation-state actors that threaten world cybersecurity.
 
“The Chinese are the most aggressive and highly successful at stealing information” for commercial purposes, Rogers said. “Russia is the most capable nation state, second only to the U.S.,” and is looking to steal state secrets for the most part.
 
The recent hack of Sony Corp. by North Korea was an eye-opener, not for the release of embarrassing celebrity e-mails but for a “wiper” virus that destroyed corporate information.
 
“North Korea is one of the least capable cyber crime actors,” Rogers said, but managed the attack nonetheless.
 
North Korean agents went out of country, holed up in a hotel and used malware already available on the internet to launch the attack.
 
Meanwhile, Russian hackers were found “lurking” around financial institutions in the U.S., possibly for purposes of retaliating against recent financial sanctions.
 
“The government will not be able to protect private companies” from attacks, Rogers said.
 
“This is a [risk] TD Ameritrade and other firms face,” he added. “A lot of people want to steal money where it sits.”
 
What the government hopefully can do is share threat information with private firms, which should be helped by pending legislation that would allow that sharing, Rogers said.
 
Rogers’ sobering outlook caused Pete Dorsey, head of sales at TDA’s custody unit to quip, “We might need a breakout session next year for the doomsday preppers” among the audience.
 
Lou Steinberg, chief technology officer, TD Ameritrade, followed up with some tips on what advisors could do to avoid hacks.
 
Three-quarters of attacks at TDA start with a compromised e-mail account, Steinberg said.
 
Once in, hackers can see e-mails to clients from banks and brokerages, birthday notices and messages from friends with enough personal information to use in getting new passwords sent for various accounts.

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