By Cameron G. Shilling,
June 1, 2018 at 3:00 AM
Cyber attacks and costly accidental losses of sensitive personal and financial information are no longer confined to retailers like Target and Sony or banks and investment houses like JP Morgan.
Professional service companies — accountants, lawyers, financial advisers and insurance agencies — are prime targets for hackers and are experiencing disproportionately damaging breaches from employee mistakes.
Clients entrust their professional service providers with the most sensitive information about themselves and their family members, including financial and investment account data, tax returns, personal and business income, corporate and legal strategies, estate planning and family law materials, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license and other governmental identification numbers.
When housing these highly valuable repositories of sensitive information, professional service firms commonly have fewer resources than larger companies and have devoted far less attention to their cyber vulnerabilities. Consequently, hackers recognize them as easy targets that generate…
