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< style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s (SIFMA) Privacy and Data Protection Committee, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have prepared “Keeping Your Account Safe,” an up-to-date, free, downloadable pdf describing the critical steps investors can take to safeguard their financial accounts and help prevent identity theft.
“Maintaining the trust and confidence of our customers is fundamental to our industry and our firms are required to safeguard customers’ personal financial information,” said Ira Hammerman, senior managing director and general counsel of SIFMA. “This tip sheet is an important resource for customers to do their part in defending against identity theft.”
“Keeping Your Account Safe” recommends a robust array of “dos” and “don’ts” to help investors protect passwords, PINS, and social security numbers, maintain computer security, as well as secure confidential documents.
“While the Internet has revolutionized the financial world, making it easier for investors to conduct investment business from remote locations, it has also presented new and serious security concerns,” said FINRA Senior Vice President of Investor Education John Gannon. “These tips outline important steps investors can take to protect their confidential customer information from getting into the wrong hands.”
“In the information age, data protection is an extremely important issue,” added Hammerman. “The long-term success of our markets depends on customers feeling confident that their personal information is secure, and we devote enormous time and resources to the protection of customer data. SIFMA hopes that member firms will find the brochure useful and if appropriate will make it available to customers and post it on their Web sites.”
The Investor tip sheet, “Keeping Your Account Safe” may be downloaded at:
http://www.sifma.org/regulatory/privacy/identity-tips.shtml or at
