Cyber Security Risks to Fund Managers

LookingGlass is a threat intelligence-driven security company that provides the most comprehensive solution portfolio in the industry. In an age of doxxing, merged operations and convergence, cyber is not just an attack medium, but also an intelligence source for a wide range of threats.

As a result, multiple functional areas across companies and governments can benefit from threat intelligence information to properly protect the organization in its entirety.

This requires information, expertise and capabilities that help protect brand, ensure compliance, identify information leaks and abuse, manage the overall deluge of threat intelligence and efficiently operationalize that information into the IT security infrastructure. The LookingGlass portfolio of threat intelligence services, machine readable threat intelligence, threat intelligence management and network mitigation capabilities enable our threat centric approach to be proactively leveraged by our clients unlike any other company in the industry.

How LookingGlass can help fund managers that have been victims of cyber attacks
It’s important to understand why fund managers and their company could be targeted. There are a few drivers that would put a fund manager and their company on a target list. The most basic is simply credential harvesting and stealing. Next there is activism that might target the company and its employees for social reasons. For example, the fund invests in a controversial company. This could lead to attacks on brand and the funds executives. There could also be protests that impact the place of operations for the fund. Then there is financial incentive. I see the financial incentive motive to be two pronged. First is the simple aspect of stealing money through account access.

The next is a bit more lucrative and less obvious. An actor may target gaining access to future investments that the fund will be making to buy into a stock ahead of the fund’s investment. Obviously that type of access and the amount of money invested by most funds is traditionally significant enough to drive a stock price, even if short lived. The last one that is important to mention is the potential security risk that a target investment might be exposed. Should a company already have an ongoing but not a published breach, an investment could turn for the worse because of the lack of knowledge of that pre-existing compromise.

Addressing the full cyber intelligence lifecycle
LookingGlass solutions enable effective security decisions and efficient security operations at every stage of the threat lifecycle. We can provide very customer specific collections regarding the company, from its locations, its executives, and potential impacts to the physical assetsto phishing alerts, indicators of compromise and cyber risks associated with its current and future investments. This intelligence is collected both from open and closed sources and can be leveraged in human readable format to automated dissemination as machine readable.

With increasing volume and sophistication of cyber security threats, targeting phishing scams, data theft, and other online vulnerabilities, it is everyone’s responsibility to take securing their systems and information
seriously.

It has been proven time and time again that the human is the weakest link in the security chain. If our jobs are our livelihood, then protecting our livelihood, organizations and investments through being wary of suspicious phone calls, emails and how you share the company relevant information is critical.

Cyber security – who does it affect?
We live in a connected world. We have gone from a network centric environment to a network dependent environment. Our systems, our partners’ systems, our personal systems and accounts are all interrelated at some point. They are all a targets and can be used to daisy chain access. The Internet of Things, electronic currencies and other modern innovations are all potential targets and while you might have a bullet- proof security posture, if your physical asset controls for example are not secure then it can provide another means by which a determined adversary could impact your operations.

Advice for fund managers and investors
Be vigilant and operate with a healthy degree of paranoia. Understand that while a company may look like a great investment, if their cyber hygiene is poor, their brand is being tarnished on social media, and their account credentials are for sale on the underground, then the company’s potential may already be compromised. Leveraging Intelligence helps organization’s better understand and manage their overall risk posture within an ever evolving threat landscape.

Company: LookingGlass Cyber Solutions
Name: Chris Coleman
Web Address: www.lgscout.com
Address: 11091 Sunset Hills Road Suite 210
Reston, VA 20190
Telephone: 001 703 351 1000