As the threat of cybercrime grows, your digital safety has never been more critical than during these volatile times. Our work at D.A. Davidson is centered on protecting your financial assets, securing all personal information and ensuring your privacy is maintained. Here we share information about our work to protect you as well as tips for safeguarding your information at home.
Our work to prevent fraud
- Following industry guidelines, D.A. Davidson uses a proven and routinely tested Information Security Program that secures your information during collection and processing. We also protect your privacy as outlined in our Privacy Policy, available on our public website.
- Our cybersecurity operations team provides comprehensive security 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- We only disclose information to third parties as needed to process your business. We mandate that all third parties who collect, process, or store your information meet or exceed best practice security guidelines.
- D.A. Davidson has an established and routinely tested Business Continuity Program to ensure our firm can continue to provide the strength of advice and provide you with access to your accounts/monies if a significant disruption to our business occurs.
What you can do to help prevent fraud
- Ensure your contact information is updated. We are monitoring and protecting your account and, if we spot an issue, we want to get in touch with you in the quickest way possible.
- Create strong and unique passwords. Strong passwords should be at least 14 characters in length and comprised of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters and should be unique for every site. Multifactor authentication should be used where possible.
- Protect your devices. Your smartphone, tablet, computer, browser, and all software, including antivirus, should be kept up-to-date. Most devices offer automatic updates, which simplify the process of keeping your devices protected.
What you can do to detect fraud
Scammers rely on a variety of avenues to trick us into giving them details to carry out fraud. Common avenues for fraud include fake emails (phishing), fake text messages (smishing), fake phone calls (vishing), and even standard mail. You can watch for common techniques, known as red flags, to help you detect fraud, including:
- The communication is from someone you don’t normally communicate with.
- The communication is unexpected or unusual with an embedded hyperlink or attachment.
- You were cc’d or bcc’d and don’t know the other people on the email.
- When you hover over a link, it goes to a different website than listed (big red flag).
- The message, hyperlink, or name is misspelled.
- The sender asks you to open an attachment, click a link, or provide information in order to avoid a negative consequence.
- The sender states they have something embarrassing of you and asks for payment in order to not release embarrassing content (blackmail).
If you are uncertain about a link, attachment or message, the best action to take is to not open it. By following these simple, commonsense steps, and staying abreast of best practices, you can keep yourself and your family from falling victim to cybercrime.
This material is being provided for educational and informational purposes only. Information contained herein is believed to be reliable, however; we can make no guarantee as to its accuracy or completeness. The information in this publication is not investment or securities advice and does not constitute an offer. Neither the information nor any opinion in the publication constitutes a solicitation or offer by D.A. Davidson or its affiliates to buy or sell any securities, options, or other financial instruments or provide any investment advice or service.