Robert Mueller, then director of the FBI, famously said in 2012, ‘there are only two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those that will be’.
Wealthy families have always been ripe targets for thieves and vandals, and the rise of the internet and electronic tools opened additional avenues for such criminals to operate — often with a cloak of anonymity.
Briefing Note – Family Offices & Privacy: A shield and a sword - Download nowThe issue is serious, the threats are confusing, and advice for dealing with the threats is often unrealistic. Ask a technology consultant which criteria should be used for passwords, and you are likely to hear something similar to this: Use a unique, 16-character password for every site and tool, do not use any known words in the password; include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters; never write it down; and change the password every 30 to 90 days.
Considering that many of us have 25 or more such passwords, we are not able to follow these stringent guidelines. This Briefing Note considers the privacy risks and challenges for family offices, describes the most common risks they face, and offers a measured approach to address the challenges.
