Financial Planning Fridays #114: Cybersecurity
With U.S. cybercrime complaints exceeding 880,000 and losses topping $12.5 billion in a year, this Presilium video explains why protecting your finances has never been more important. It shares practical steps to limit exposure and guard accounts and personal information against increasingly AI-powered fraud.
With U.S. cybercrime complaints exceeding 880,000 and losses topping $12.5 billion in a year, this Presilium video explains why protecting your finances has never been more important. It shares practical steps to limit exposure and guard accounts and personal information against increasingly AI-powered fraud.
Key takeaways
- Cybercrime is rising sharply, with U.S. losses estimated above $12.5 billion in a single year per an FBI report.
- AI is making scams more convincing, raising the stakes for personal cyber defense.
- Limiting how and where you share personal and financial information reduces your exposure.
- Basic safeguards like strong authentication and vigilance are central to protecting your wealth.
Hi Friends, We are now entering an unprecedented era of cybercrime and it is now more important than ever to protect yourself. According to an April 2024 FBI report, there were more than 880,000 cybercrime complaints in the U.S. last year with losses that may exceed $12.5 Billion. We understand this is scary and frankly, with the advent of AI, it is very likely to get even worse. The key is to limit their ability to access your online accounts and make yourself a difficult target so that they move on to the next person. Please take the following steps today to protect yourself. First, make sure your Fidelity and Presilium username and passwords are not used anywhere else and do not include common items like your name, address, birthday, or e-mail address. Second, assume that a cybercriminal will eventually gain access to your username and password and consequently, add multi-factor authentication to all of your financial accounts. This will require you to not only login as usual but also to enter a unique code that will be sent by text or e-mail to you. This added layer of security will make it much more difficult for someone to access your accounts even if they are able to obtain your username and password. This is absolutely critical and can be done in a few easy steps for your Presilium accounts held at Fidelity. We created a short video to walk you through how to do this and will include the link in the description. Our final advice is to never access any important online accounts using public WIFI such as at the airport or hotel. These are often targeted by cybercriminals as a relatively easy way to access your computer and online information. Please call or e-mail us with any questions on how to secure your accounts and protect your family- this is extremely important to us, and we are happy to help. Thank you and we look forward to talking with you next Friday. Be on the lookout for our next Financial Planning Fridays episode. Subscribe to our Youtube Channel so you never miss an episode. Or contact us directly; schedule your 15-minute call with us today.
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