Financial advisers focus on cyber security


August 14, 2015

Fraudulent emails from hackers used to be obvious, full of misspellings and bad grammar. Now cyber crooks are even sounding like their victims as they try to trick financial advisers into wiring money from clients’ accounts.

No one at Fort Pitt Capital in Pittsburgh has fallen for such schemes. But the firm, like many others, is beefing up cyber security education for employees. It is also boosting client outreach in the face of rampant identify theft, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation notes is the fastest growing crime in the United States, and cyber attacks, which exceed 100,000 per day.

Fort Pitt held its first cyber security seminar for clients last week, tapping expertise from True North Networks, a New Hampshire-based technology consulting firm it hired to provide network surveillance, employee training and client communication assistance. The seminar offered tips such as using a two-step process to log in to email, developing strong passwords, and evading email phishing attempts.