By Investment / Compliance Associate Bobby Adusumilli, CFA.
While the returns of your investment portfolio are important, so are your personal information and assets. With technology advancements in recent years, protecting your information is becoming as important as ever. We have been updating our practices and policies to ensure that your information and assets remain secure. We also want to emphasize some best practices that can help us work together to ensure your information and assets remain safe:
Multi-Factor Authentication: When logging into various websites and programs, having at least one additional login layer - such as a pin number, email, text message, and / or authentication app - can significantly decrease the chances of your data getting compromised. In light of this, we recently made the decision to require multi-factor authentication for all MySJS Portals. While this adds an extra step for people logging in to their MySJS Portals, we believe this will help protect sensitive client information.
Sharing Information Securely: Simply sending an email with sensitive information is one of the easiest ways for hackers to access your data. Other ways to share your information more securely include using a trusted document-sharing portal (such as your MySJS Portal), password-protecting the relevant file, encrypting the email, and (old-school) mailing the relevant documents.
Skeptical Of Requests For Sensitive Information: Scammers are coming up with increasingly clever ways to ask for your information, such as sending convincing emails as well as phone calls pretending to be someone else (today, scammers can call from a phone number that you think is legitimate as well as use a voice software to sound like someone else). At SJS, our general rule of thumb is that all requests for information are illegitimate until proven otherwise. Additionally, when we receive a one-off email to withdraw money from your account, SJS requires you to call us to provide verbal authorization for the withdrawal request.
Storing Your Personal Information In Safe Places: For both physical and digital information, it is important to store your personal information in safe places, and to only share this information with people you trust. For example, you can use a password-protected file, a secure online password storage service, or a safe-deposit box kept in a hidden location. We recently ordered waterproof and fire-resistant envelopes that people can store their documents in - if you would like one, please let us know.
Avoid Public Computers & Wi-Fi: Public computers and Wi-Fi are relatively easy ways that hackers can access your personal information. Using personal Wi-Fi hotspots from your phone can limit the need to use public computers and Wi-Fi.
When In Doubt, Meet In-Person: Even with all of the different technologies and ways to communicate with each other, many times the best way to get work done both effectively and securely is in-person. Our favorite parts of our days are meeting with our clients face-to-face.
As always, we are here to help, and we are glad to meet with you to discuss how you can better keep your information secure!
Important Disclosure Information:
Statements contained in this article that are not statements of historical fact are intended to be and are forward looking statements. Forward looking statements include expressed expectations of future events and the assumptions on which the expressed expectations are based. All forward looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on various expectations and assumptions concerning future events and they are subject to numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected.
Advisory services are provided by SJS Investment Services, a registered investment advisor (RIA) with the SEC. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. SJS Investment Services does not provide legal or tax advice. Please consult your legal or tax professionals for specific advice.
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