Wealth manager and financial planner Succession Wealth (recently acquired by Aviva for £385m) has been targeted by fraudsters in cyberattacks.
The asset manager said it has launched an investigation into how the attack came about and has put further security measures in place.
Succession did not share further details about the nature of the attack or whether client data was compromised.
A company spokesperson said, “We are evaluating and working to resolve this situation, but are unable to comment on the nature of this attack at this stage.
“We will provide further updates as needed.
Founded in 2009, Succession Wealth is the UK’s leading wealth manager and financial planner. In the UK he has 16 offices and his 600 employees, including his 180 wealth planners who look after 18,000 individuals, families and businesses.
Succession was acquired by Aviva plc in August 2022.
The financial planning industry has been targeted by multiple cyberattacks over the past few months.
In October, the Chartered Insurance Institute and Personal Finance Society were hit by cyberattacks that accessed the personal data of some of their members.
Last March, the Financial Conduct Authority reported that cyberattack incidents will increase by 52% in 2021, with 116 reports received.
One-third of reported incidents may have compromised the confidentiality of company or personal data.
The FCA considers an incident to be serious if it results in significant data loss, unavailability or control of IT systems, impact to a large number of customers, or unauthorized access to information systems.
One-fifth of incidents reported to the FCA in 2021 involved ransomware, according to Picus Security, an IT security firm that filed a Freedom of Information Request with regulators. Two-thirds (65%) of reported cyber incidents in 2021 were due to cyber attacks.