Six Easy Steps to Keep Your Plan Assets Safe
Cyber fraud is a growing concern globally. Individuals are typically very careful to keep their bank account and email authentication information safe, but they aren’t always smart with the rest of their personal information.
As a retirement plan participant, you need to be vigilant with your retirement savings accounts as well. In the past year we’ve seen a slew of cases of attempted fraud – some successful – against retirement savings plan participants across a multitude of recordkeepers. The good news is that virtually all recordkeepers view security as a prominent priority and diligently update their technology. However, their security can only go so far if the participant isn’t being equally vigilant.
As a plan participants, consider the following tips to ensure the security of your retirement savings accounts.
Use all available levels of authentication. If your plan’s recordkeeper comes out with a new type of authentication, you should implement it immediately.
If you frequent a website or have an account with a company whose website and information has been compromised, you should change all of their passwords for all online accounts.
Use strong passwords. Utilize letters, capitalization, numbers and symbols. Don’t use recognizable words. Don’t use the same password for multiple purposes. Have the password be at least 14 characters in length. Consider changing passwords frequently. Using a password manager can make this task less unwieldly.
Don’t send authentication information to any third parties and limit authentication access to use on sites which are navigated to independently – not through a link or other prompt.
Check your accounts frequently and address any irregularities.
Immediately contact your plan administrator if you receive any “updates” that look suspicious so they can notify your recordkeeper.
For more information on keeping your plan assets safe from cyberattack, please contact your Trusted KerberRose Retirement Plan Advisor at (715) 524-6626 or via email at 401kservices@kerberrose.com.