The biggest data loss at a financial firm rarely looks like a hacker.
A bank disclosed that a former employee accessed company files after their employment had ended. Roughly 689,000 customers of one lending partner got notification letters. The company never said how the access happened — and that's the part worth sitting with.
When I sit down with a wealth management practice, my first question isn't who might attack you. It's what can walk out the door on an ordinary Friday. A book of business exported to a spreadsheet. A client list forwarded to a personal email account "just to work from home." Statements dragged onto a thumb drive. In most firms none of that trips an alarm, because nobody ever set one.
Microsoft 365 can watch for it. Data Loss Prevention reads the content itself — account numbers, SSNs, documents you've marked confidential — and can stop it leaving by email, by upload to a personal cloud drive, or by copy to a USB stick. Start in simulation mode and just watch what's already moving before you block anything.
That first report is the eye-opener. Usually not because someone's stealing, but because nobody knew the door was open.
This isn't a big project. It's an afternoon of policy work and an honest conversation about what you'd actually want stopped.
Worth a look before your next cyber renewal.
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