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SEC penalizes investment company $1 million for cyber security failings

Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security SEC Enforcement Settlement

Privacy, Cyber Risk & Data Security

On September 26, the SEC announced a settlement with an Iowa-based broker-dealer and investment advisement company, which agreed to pay $1 million to resolve allegations that the company violated the Safeguards Rule and the Identity Theft Red Flags Rule arising out of the company’s failure to protect confidential customer information from intrusion. This is the SEC’s first enforcement action charging violations under the Rule. According to the order, intruders were able to access the company’s system by impersonating company contractors, calling the company’s support line, and requesting their passwords be reset. The intruders gained access to the company’s system that contained personally identifiable information for approximately 5,600 customers and obtained unauthorized access to account documents for three customers. The SEC identified weaknesses in the company’s cybersecurity procedures, including failure to terminate the intruders’ access even after the intrusion was flagged and failure to apply its procedures to the systems used by its independent contractors. The order takes into account remedial acts undertaken by the company, including blocking malicious IP addresses and issuing breach notices to affected customers, and requires the company to pay a $1 million penalty and retain an independent consultant to evaluate its compliance with the Safeguards Rule and the Identity Theft Red Flags Rule. The company did not admit nor deny the SEC’s findings.