Lawson Conner has launched Lawson Conner Guardian, a comprehensive set of solutions to help protect fund managers and financial services firms from the increasing threats of cyber security.
Lawson Conner has supported over 100 firms in the past to stay compliant and to implement solutions to reduce the risks such as cyber security risks.
Recently, risks of cyber attacks have grown exponentially as fund managers and financial services firms have become more integrated with counter-parties and system architectures have grown in complexity. Due to the industry’s heavy reliance on data and the sensitivity of the data involved in financial services transactions the sector is considered to be one of the most vulnerable sectors.
Lawson Conner Guardian is specifically tailored for those most vulnerable, the smaller and mid size fund managers and financial services firms who do not have the budgets to afford full-time, dedicated IT risk specialists. Lawson Connor Guardian is integrated with our investment manager platform which significantly reduces administration and costs.
Lawson Connor Guardian includes the following solutions:
• LC Security Advisor – a dedicated framework to formulate an effective financial services IT security strategy
• Security ‘HealthCheck’ – assessment of current infrastructure and potential threats from cyber security attacks; identification of systems gaps and recommendations to reduce cyber security risks
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery – planning and testing of business continuity processes
• Security Products – advice on information, application and network security solutions and vendor due diligence
• Security Research – stay up-to-date with our industry-leading research on industry trends, new solutions and biggest threats reports
“What we see is that some financial services firms have created some sort of ‘technology monsters’ which are difficult to control and are prone to highly targeted cyber attacks. Organisations today really struggle to adequately protect themselves. As such, it means that the risks from cyber security have grown exponentially as fund managers and financial services firms have become more integrated with other counterparties,” says Gerhard Grueter, Managing Director at Lawson Conner. “In addition to high regulatory and reputational risks, which can easily bring down a financial services firm, there are also risks of personal liability to stakeholders of such organisations. Management of financial services firms need to take these risks very seriously and act now.”
Clients of Lawson Conner benefit from a team of experts in cyber security and Lawson Conner’s best practise expertise. “Developing and applying a compliant and secure IT framework can not only protect firms from negative impact, but also act as competitive advantage against competitors, because secure systems is what investors are increasingly looking for,” says Grueter.
