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Financial Firms Fear Cyber Attacks Cause Clients To Leave – Survey

Editorial Staff

17 October 2025

The vast majority of financial executives at firms and groups including RIAs and family offices say clients will withdraw funds if cyber attacks succeed, a survey from Omega Systems has found.

Some 88 per cent of those surveyed said a successful cyber attack would prompt customers to pull their money out. The Cyber Resilience in Financial Services Report is based on a survey conducted in August 2025 of more than 300 US financial services executives across family offices, RIAs, wealth managers, hedge funds, private equity, and investment advisory firms.

The findings highlight what is at stake for wealth managers. Besides the costs of security measures and compliance, client outflows after a breach are another source of concern.

Among chief financial officers, this cohort is even more convinced that successful cyber attacks would cause clients to leave.

Some 93 per cent of firms experienced at least one attack in the past year, and 18 per cent faced more than 25 attacks. At the same time, more than half of firms are not monitoring threats in real time.

“What the data make clear is that financial services leaders can no longer separate business performance from cyber resilience,” Mike Fuhrman, CEO of Omega Systems, said. “Trust, assets under management, and growth now hinge on a firm’s ability to withstand disruption in an environment where attacks happen routinely.”

More than a third of firms said it would take a week or longer to detect and contain a breach, and 6 per cent admitted it could take a month.

Family offices are among the most exposed: 78 per cent say a successful attack would trigger withdrawals or investor panic, 83 per cent are concerned about impersonation threats, 67 per cent acknowledge outdated systems would hinder recovery, and 72 per cent believe they are targeted more often because they manage high net worth assets.

Omega Systems provides managed IT and security services.