Regional Wealth Management firm, delighted to achieve Cyber Essentials Plus

Operations Director, Neil Boulton

FORRESTER BOYD  Wealth Management are proud to have achieved the Cyber Essentials Plus and IASME Gold accreditations, one of only a handful of regional wealth management firms to achieve this standard.

In such a highly regulated profession and with clients entrusting the Firm to manage their financial assets, Forrester Boyd Wealth Management wanted to ensure that they were doing everything in their power to secure data, client confidentiality and their reputation.

Cyber Essentials Plus is only achieved by having an independent assessment of control procedures in place. This places a greater emphasis on ensuring that all a company’s systems, processes and procedures meet the assessment criteria. In addition to this the Firm has also been accredited with the IASME Gold standard. This government backed standard is an alternative to the internal ISO27001 standard and again, one that can only be achieved through an external audit.

“With the increased threat from fraudsters, we wanted to ensure that we were adopting the ‘best in class’ systems and processes to secure not only our data but our clients’ information. This entailed not only ensuring we had the IT infrastructure in place to meet the requirements but also that our staff had the necessary training and awareness to identify potential cyber-attacks” said Operations Director, Neil Boulton.

“Many cyber-attacks such as phishing emails, rely upon the physical weakness within a firm – its people. Most businesses have sophisticated firewalls and malware in place, however without the proper guidance, training and awareness of the systems users, any business is still vulnerable. We therefore ensure that we keep our staff, and our clients, up to date on the latest scams and what to watch out for.”

“Forrester Boyd Wealth Management is relied upon by its clients to manage their wealth portfolios. For us, this means not only managing the assets and investments as would be expected, but also to do our utmost to protect those assets and investment from online criminal activity” continued Neil

The Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation cements Forrester Boyd Wealth Management’s commitment to its clients in minimising cyber risks to the best of their ability. Along with their investment into their infrastructure and systems, this accreditation reinforces the work the Firm is doing to fight cyber-crime.

Emma Davis, Head of Training and Testing from Digital Armour Ltd stated: “As an established IASME Cyber Essentials Certification Body, Digital Armour Ltd is proud to have worked with an organisation who are so proactive in ensuring the security of their data. It is refreshing to work with a team who continuously strive for improvement, and whose cyber security methodology is seen as continued journey, rather than a one-off, tick-box exercise. By progressing to the IASME accreditation, not only can they be sure their physical network infrastructure is secure, but that they are taking the proper steps to ensure clients’ information is protected from all possible attack vectors and human error. The IASME Governance includes compliance to GDPR and is verified by an independent auditor, providing external verification that Forrester Boyd Wealth Management really do prioritise information security. Achieving the Gold standard means that their organisation can proudly say they have IASME’s highest level of certification and they can assure both their customers and supply chain that Forrester Boyd Wealth Management are dedicated to protecting their information.”