Risk
Cybersecurity Is a Family Wealth Problem
Family offices combine money, identity, access, confidential documents and high-value targets. That makes cyber risk a governance issue, not an IT footnote.
Deloitte reported that 43% of surveyed family offices had experienced a cyberattack in the prior 12-24 months; many lacked disaster recovery, cyber insurance and know-your-vendor protocols.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Require MFA and strong identity controls.
Build a disaster-recovery and incident-response plan.
Review vendors that can access financial or personal data.
Practice wire-transfer verification and social-engineering defenses.
Why families are attractive targets
A family office can hold bank instructions, tax returns, passport information, trust documents, property information, private-company records and direct access to principals. Attackers may combine phishing, deepfakes, compromised email and vendor weaknesses.
A practical control stack
Use hardware-backed or app-based MFA, password management, least-privilege access, encrypted backups, device management, vendor due diligence, callback procedures for money movement, annual training and a tested incident-response plan.
Include the family
Security is not solved by the office if the principal’s personal email, home Wi-Fi or assistant remains unprotected. The risk perimeter includes family members and household staff when they handle sensitive information.
FAQ
Is cyber insurance enough?
No. Insurance is one layer; prevention, detection, response and recovery controls are still needed.
What is “know your vendor”?
A process for assessing the security, access, contracts and incident history of third parties that handle or can reach sensitive systems or data.
Sources and research trail
This page was developed from the source manuscript and should be read with the publication's primary-source library.
- Deloitte Family Office Cybersecurity Report 2024