Your lifestyle affects your likelihood for loss.

From phishing emails and identity theft to fraudulent money transfer requests, cybercriminals continue to find new ways to target individuals and their assets. For financially successful families, the opportunities for a cybercriminal are even more numerous, and the potential profit to be made is greater.

In these households, trusted employees or other third parties may help with tasks such as caring for children; managing finances; and maintaining homes, automobiles and valuable collections. The complexity created by this network of third parties—and the communication taking place within that system—increases exposure, no matter how trustworthy or well-intentioned the individuals. Risk also increases with the number of internet-connected devices, frequency of travel and use of the internet of things (IoT).

Common recommendations, such as following best practices when choosing passwords, enabling multifactor authentication and remaining vigilant about phishing emails, become even more important when you have more to lose. And there are more advanced precautions you can take as well.

The greater your financial assets and the larger your network, the greater the likelihood that a point of vulnerability will develop—and all it takes is one. The advice in this guide is intended to help you protect yourself, your family and your assets.

As of January 2021, there were 1,108 known data breaches in 2020, impacting over 300 million individuals. Nearly 50% of these breaches exposed records containing Social Security Numbers.¹

Ransomware and phishing attacks made up over half of the recorded incidents in 2020. In Q4 of 2020, the average ransomware payout was $233,000 per event.

¹ Source: Identity Theft Resource Center