DOL Steerage for Retirement Plan Cybersecurity

Earlier this 12 months, the DOL’s Worker Advantages Safety Administration issued cybersecurity steerage for retirement plan sponsors, fiduciaries, recordkeepers, and individuals. It lays out the obligations of “accountable plan fiduciaries” to mitigate cybersecurity dangers to retirement plan property and participant knowledge. Concerning greatest practices, the DOL steerage for retirement plan cybersecurity recommends a three-pronged method:

1) Suggestions for hiring a retirement plan service supplier. Many (if not most) plan sponsors depend on third-party service suppliers for help with plan administration and recordkeeping. You possibly can assist shoppers make the best determination for his or her plans by guaranteeing that they concentrate on the next greatest practices when vetting third-party distributors:

• Ask concerning the service supplier’s info safety requirements, practices, insurance policies, and audit outcomes. Your plan sponsor shoppers ought to evaluate this knowledge with business requirements.

• Find out how the service supplier validates its practices and which ranges of safety requirements it has met and applied. Right here, the main target ought to be on contract provisions that give the consumer the best to overview audit outcomes, demonstrating compliance with the usual.

• Consider the service supplier’s business monitor document. Purple flags may embody info safety incidents, litigation, or authorized proceedings associated to the seller’s companies.

• Focus on whether or not the service supplier has skilled previous safety breaches. If that’s the case, what occurred? How did the service supplier reply?

• Discover out whether or not the service supplier has any insurance coverage insurance policies. Would such insurance policies cowl losses attributable to cybersecurity and id theft breaches?

• Be sure that the service supplier contract requires ongoing compliance with cybersecurity and data safety requirements. Some contract provisions might restrict the service supplier’s duty for info safety breaches, whereas different phrases improve cybersecurity safety for the plan and its individuals, together with:

  • Info safety reporting

  • Provisions on the use and sharing of knowledge and confidentiality

  • Notification of cybersecurity breaches

  • Compliance with information retention and destruction, privateness, and data safety legal guidelines

  • Insurance coverage

2) Retirement plan cybersecurity greatest practices. Creating a coverage primarily based on greatest practices will allow plan fiduciaries to behave prudently and mitigate cybersecurity threat. Be sure you educate your plan sponsor shoppers on the next pillars of a superb coverage:

• Create a proper, well-documented cybersecurity program to establish and assess inner and exterior cybersecurity dangers that threaten the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of saved, nonpublic info. This system ought to:

  • Pinpoint dangers

  • Present vital safety

  • Establish cybersecurity occasions and reply to them

  • Work to revive operations and companies

• Set up robust safety insurance policies, pointers, and requirements.

• Conduct annual threat assessments, in addition to periodic cybersecurity consciousness coaching.

• Carry out an annual third-party audit of safety controls.

• Outline and assign info safety roles and duties.

• Develop robust knowledge entry management procedures.

• Be sure that any property or knowledge saved in a cloud or managed by a third-party service supplier are topic to applicable safety evaluations and unbiased safety assessments.

• Implement and handle a safe methods improvement life cycle (SDLC) program (i.e., a proper manner of guaranteeing that satisfactory safety controls are applied).

• Have an efficient enterprise resiliency program that addresses enterprise continuity, catastrophe restoration, and incident response.

• Be sure that delicate knowledge is encrypted whereas saved and in transit.

• Implement robust technical safety options and safety greatest practices (e.g., frequently replace antivirus software program and again up knowledge).

• Appropriately reply to previous cybersecurity incidents.

3) On-line safety suggestions for plan fiduciaries and individuals. Though the next suggestions may be acquainted, retaining them high of thoughts will assist your shoppers and their plan individuals scale back the chance of fraud and loss to their retirement accounts:

• Register, arrange, and routinely monitor any on-line retirement account.

• Create robust and distinctive passwords.

• Use multifactor authentication.

• Preserve private contact info present.

• Shut or delete unused accounts.

• Be cautious of free Wi-Fi.

• Be within the know relating to indicators of phishing assaults.

• Use antivirus software program and maintain apps and software program present.

Cybersecurity Consciousness Mindset

Based on the DOL steerage for retirement plan cybersecurity, the insurance policies described above are designed to assist defend an estimated $9.3 trillion in plan property. This huge sum highlights the cyberthreats confronted by your plan sponsor shoppers and their plan individuals. For those who’re an advisor who helps or acts as a plan fiduciary, you might have an obligation to do your half in educating your shoppers relating to cybersecurity. It’s additionally a superb enterprise follow—and a very good approach to construct relationships with retirement plan sponsors.

For extra info on cybersecurity, learn our current put up on the significance of cyber legal responsibility insurance coverage. We additionally suggest visiting the Cybersecurity Consciousness Month web site.