Fidelity Institutional announced it is enhancing its cybersecurity tools for advisors.
Fidelity Institutional is partnering with Armorblox, a software-as-a-service company, to provide more protection for email for advisors and their clients, Fidelity said. Compromises to email accounts were the top cybercrime reported to the FBI in terms of financial loss, at about $2.1 billion last year. The partnership with Armorblox is designed to address the growing concern about data theft across the financial industry, Fidelity said.
Armorblox’s technology analyzes client emails and identifies problematic behavior. Armorblox uses algorithms such as natural language understanding, machine learning and other artificial intelligence techniques to analyze thousands of data points and help prevent sophisticated email threats, Fidelity added.
“A robust cybersecurity program is critical not only to advisors’ business operations, but also to maintaining the trust they have worked so hard to build with their clients,” Scott Slater, vice president of practice management and consulting at Fidelity Institutional, said in a statement.
According to Fidelity research, a majority of advisors say the Covid-19 crisis has prompted their firms to revisit and update their cybersecurity protocols regarding using technology virtually. Many advisors also say compliance, risk monitoring and cybersecurity technology platforms became more valuable during this time.
Fidelity’s 2021 Investor Insights Study showed that more than half of investors with advisors said they would switch financial advisors if there was any report of cybercrime or security breaches into customer accounts at their advisory firm.