The Family Cyber Hygiene List: Five Moves Before Any Policy
By Andrew O'Neill · Founder & Principal
Families ask us about cyber coverage more than they used to, and they're right to. But a policy is the backstop, not the front line: it responds after a loss. The moves that actually keep a family out of trouble cost nothing and sit upstream of any insurance. Here are the five we walk clients through first.
1. Turn on multi-factor authentication where it matters
Email, banking, brokerage, and anything tied to money or identity. Multi-factor authentication is the single highest-return step available, because it defeats the most common attack: a stolen password. If you do one thing on this list, do this.
2. Give every important account its own password
Reused passwords are how one breach becomes ten. A password manager makes this painless: it generates and remembers a unique, long password for every account, so no one in the family has to. A leak in one place then stays in one place.
3. Freeze your credit
A security freeze at the three credit bureaus is free, reversible, and stops someone from opening credit in your name. For a family with a public profile or significant assets, it's one of the most effective and least discussed protections there is. Do it for the adults, and for any child who has a Social Security number.
4. Treat the phone call as fake until it proves otherwise
The most effective attacks on wealthy families aren't technical. They're a convincing message from the bank, the title company, or a relative in trouble. Set one rule: money never moves on an inbound call or email alone. Verify wire instructions by calling a number you already have, every time. This habit stops the losses technology and insurance can't.
5. Lock down the people around the money
Household staff, a family office, anyone with access to accounts and systems is part of the attack surface. Basic training, separate logins, and least-privilege access (people reach only what their role requires) close the door sophisticated attackers count on being left open.
Then, and only then, the policy
With those five in place, cyber and fraud coverage does its real job: catching what gets through. We help families place it and coordinate the protocols above so the coverage and the habits reinforce each other. If you'd like, we'll start with a quiet review of where your family actually stands.