Cybersecurity reminders are everywhere in the workplace. Whether it’s mandatory employee training, anti-virus software, or warnings about email phishing scams coming from your IT department, cybersecurity threats are a known commodity at work. However, increasingly, wealthy individuals are being targeted at home, where they lack the same assurances and safeguards.

According to a 2024 Deloitte survey of ultra-wealthy single-family offices (with assets of more than $1 billion on average), 31 percent reported not having a plan in place to contain a cybersecurity incident, despite the rising prevalence and significant financial risks they pose.

It’s now more important than ever to protect your family from online threats by instilling best practices in digital hygiene along with a proactive cybersecurity strategy.

Why High-Net-Worth Families Are At Risk

Wealthy individuals are increasingly common targets for cybercriminals, and not only because of their sizable assets. The more a person or family has an online footprint — including social media accounts, philanthropic activities, and organizational emails — the more potential access points exist for an attack.

Ultra-high-net-worth families are vulnerable to attacks for a variety of reasons:

• Wealth: The end goal of most cybercriminals is to enrich themselves, which leads them to target well-off families for wire fraud and ransom-based schemes.
• Lack of Firewalls: UHNW family offices often function with an informal governance structure, all members having universal access to the same accounts and information. Cyberattacks can quickly spread across their digital infrastructure as a result.
• Public Profiles: Though not true of every wealthy family, many promote their charitable giving, social activity, and business successes on digital platforms. This makes them targets for social engineering-based attacks, cyberbullying, or extortion that puts their reputation at risk.

Cybersecurity breaches can easily jump from device to device, quickly compromising the privacy and assets of an entire family. And if you’re part of an ultra-high-net-worth family, the risk is more pronounced.

How to Rethink Cybersecurity

What’s your biggest fear about your financial portfolio? Most people list concerns, including a market crash, tax policy adjustments, or leadership changes at the top of a family company. In today’s world, it’s time to add another risk: the anonymous, invisible adversaries probing your assets for cybersecurity weaknesses.

A damaging cybersecurity attack can take many forms. It could be an AI-generated voice of a family member or close acquaintance asking for password information. It might look like an invoice attachment from a legitimate business partner that has been falsified and contains ransomware. Or, it could be a bad actor hacking into a computer to copy photos or documents before requesting money in exchange for their safe return.

Luckily, there’s a range of cybersecurity tools that can help to protect your wealth:

• Stronger Log-In Protocols: Nobody likes a long, unique password, but it’s often the first line of defense against a cyberattack. Developing strong passwords — which contain original combinations of both words and characters — along with utilizing two-factor authentication, will prevent breaches. Use password managers (many of them come with guaranteed security terms) to stay organized.
• Education: While corporate data breaches must typically be reported, cyberattacks on wealthy families and individuals often go unpublicized. So, it’s worth sending around articles that make family members more aware of the types of scams they might be exposed to — such as SIM swap attacks, wire fraud, and phishing scams.
• Use a VPN: It doesn’t make sense for a family to invest in the same cybersecurity tools that major corporations purchase, due to their high price tags and steep learning curves. One inexpensive tool that can be implemented within families, however, is a virtual private network (VPN) on everyone’s computer. VPNs will keep the IP address of a computer or mobile device hidden, making it incognito — even while using public Wi-Fi — from hackers.
• Auditing Your Vulnerabilities: Conduct a review of who has access to key accounts and platforms related to family finances, culling any unnecessary or outdated names from those lists — and updating passwords and two-factor authentication standards in the process.

It’s important to note that while these steps are helpful, they are merely preventative in nature. A professional cybersecurity expert or concierge is necessary when a breach occurs, in order to minimize the financial damage and diagnose what went wrong.

Take the next step

At Peak, we believe that digital hygiene is a critical part of any long-term financial strategy. We understand that for wealthy clients, cybersecurity is both a top priority and frequently a source of anxiety, which is why our experts are here to help.

Let’s have a conversation about how we can help you realize your goals and project your financial assets into the future. Reach out today to schedule a meeting.