The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global industry body representing alternative asset managers, has published new cyber security guidance for hedge fund firms and other asset managers.
The AIMA Guide to Sound Practices for Cyber Security sets out a number of steps that hedge fund firms and other asset managers should take in building up their cyber security defences.
The Guide discusses the nature and scope of existing and emerging threats and offers practical guidance on effective methods for preventing or dealing with them.
The Guide focuses on matters such as governance, employee related considerations, the technology that can be used for data protection, threat prevention and threat detection and how these technologies can be developed in-house or using cloud services.
It also sets out how cyber security programmes fit within the developing regulatory environment being applied to cyber security matters.
To help smaller fund managers, and managers seeking to assess the effectiveness of their existing cyber security programmes, the Guide also indicates the level of difficulty that a firm might have in implementing certain types of threat preventions and threat detection techniques as part of a cyber security programme.
AIMA CEO Jack Inglis said: "Technological advances have brought great efficiencies to investment managers, but not without introducing new and unexpected risks. Cyber security is one of the biggest challenges facing all kinds of businesses today, and yet until now there has been very little guidance tailored to asset management firms in general, and hedge fund firms and other alternative asset managers in particular. This has raised questions both about fund managers¹ understanding of the various cyber security-related issues and how their businesses could be impacted as well
as their overall level of preparedness.
"What is obvious is that vigilance and preparedness is key. With this Guide to Sound Practices, we hope that our members will be better equipped to understand and deal with these new and emerging challenges and threats."
The Guide was created by a working group of AIMA¹s Sound Practices Committee, a body of AIMA member firms that advises the association on industry sound practices across a range of disciplines.
