Industries · Financial Advisors

Your clients trust you
with their money.

Material non-public information, account details, and financial plans move through your email and client portal every day. One spoofed email can trigger a wire fraud event. One unsecured domain can cost you your registration.

The challenge

SEC examiners ask
very specific questions.

SEC/FINRA Require “Reasonable” Cybersecurity

SEC Regulation S-P requires registered investment advisors to adopt written policies and procedures reasonably designed to safeguard customer records and information. FINRA Rule 3110 extends this to supervision of electronic communications. During examinations, SEC and FINRA examiners request evidence of email authentication, encryption, and access controls. “We use a hosting provider” is not an answer they accept.

Email Spoofing Enables Wire Fraud

Business email compromise targeting financial advisors is a multi-billion-dollar problem. Attackers spoof your domain to send wire transfer instructions to clients. Without DMARC at enforcement level, there is nothing preventing someone from sending email that appears to come from your firm. When a client wires $250,000 to a fraudulent account based on a spoofed email from your domain, the liability conversation starts with your email authentication — or lack of it.

E&O Insurance Premiums Reflect Your Controls

Errors and omissions insurance carriers for financial advisors increasingly require documented cybersecurity controls as a condition of coverage. Firms with email authentication enforcement, encrypted data transmission, and regular security monitoring see measurably lower premiums. Firms without them face surcharges, coverage limitations, or outright exclusions for cyber-related claims.

How PrismWeb helps

Sixteen checks mapped to
SEC and FINRA expectations.

Every security control we implement maps to the specific requirements SEC and FINRA examiners check during cybersecurity examinations.

WIRE FRAUD PREVENTION
SPF + DKIM + DMARC at Enforcement

DMARC at p=reject prevents anyone from sending email that appears to come from your domain. This is the single most effective control against business email compromise and fraudulent wire transfer instructions. SEC OCIE has specifically identified email authentication as an examination priority.

DATA TRANSMISSION SECURITY
MTA-STS + TLS-RPT + Enhanced TLS

Enforces encrypted email transmission for material non-public information. MTA-STS prevents downgrade attacks. TLS-RPT provides auditable evidence of encryption enforcement. Enhanced TLS ensures strong cipher negotiation — all controls SEC examiners look for under Reg S-P.

CLIENT PORTAL SECURITY
Isolated Hosting + Security Headers + SSL/TLS

Your client portal runs in complete isolation with comprehensive security headers preventing clickjacking, XSS, and data exfiltration. HSTS enforcement and automatic certificate management ensure every client connection is encrypted end-to-end.

INFRASTRUCTURE INTEGRITY
DNSSEC + RPKI + Certificate Validation

Prevents DNS spoofing and BGP hijacking that could redirect client traffic to malicious servers. Certificate validation ensures your domain’s trust chain is intact. These controls prevent the infrastructure-level attacks that enable credential theft and account takeover.

CONTINUOUS MONITORING
IP Abuse + Website Scanning + Malware Detection

Daily scanning for compromised infrastructure, malware injection, and IP reputation degradation. FINRA expects supervised firms to maintain ongoing monitoring — not just point-in-time assessments.

EXAMINATION READINESS
Compliance Documentation on Demand

Evidence packets formatted for SEC examination requests and FINRA audits. Security configurations, access logs, incident response documentation, and control mappings — available immediately, not assembled during the two-week response window.

Case study

Registered investment advisor, $180M AUM.
Examination-ready in 10 days.

THE SITUATION

A registered investment advisor managing $180 million in client assets received notification of an upcoming SEC cybersecurity examination. Their existing hosting provider offered shared infrastructure with no email authentication, no DNSSEC, and no security documentation. The firm’s compliance officer had 30 days to demonstrate “reasonable” cybersecurity controls under Reg S-P.

WHAT WE DID

We migrated the firm’s website and client portal to isolated hosting, deployed the complete email authentication stack at enforcement level, implemented DNSSEC and RPKI, configured comprehensive security headers, and set up continuous sixteen-check monitoring. We generated an examination-ready evidence packet mapping each control to specific SEC cybersecurity examination priorities and Reg S-P requirements.

THE RESULT

The firm passed the SEC examination with no findings related to infrastructure security or email controls. The examiner specifically noted the quality of the documentation. The firm’s E&O insurance premium decreased at the next renewal, and their compliance officer now uses our on-demand evidence packets for annual compliance reviews and client due diligence requests.

Compliance frameworks

Regulations that apply
to your practice.

SEC Reg S-P
Safeguards Rule

Requires written policies and procedures reasonably designed to protect customer records and information from unauthorized access.

FINRA
Rules 3110 & 3120

Supervision requirements for electronic communications, including email retention, authentication, and monitoring obligations.

State Securities
Blue Sky Laws

State-level securities regulations that may impose additional cybersecurity requirements beyond federal mandates for state-registered advisors.

E&O Insurance
Professional Liability

Errors and omissions insurance underwriting requirements increasingly mandate email authentication, encryption, and documented incident response.

For financial advisors

Fiduciary data deserves
fiduciary-grade security.

Tell us your domain. We’ll run the sixteen checks, map every finding to SEC and FINRA expectations, and show you exactly where your exposure is.