You have heard the compliance boilerplate. Insider threats are your most dangerous risk vector. What you have not heard is what that looks like when it lands on your desk at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday.
This is not a theoretical exercise. The tactics below are written from the adversary point of view. They map onto gaps that exist in almost every small RIA, broker-dealer, and fund operation we have assessed.
Inside the brief
The full brief walks through six attack patterns, each mapped to the rule an examiner will cite and the control that closes it. It includes a complete incident log of a recruited insider, from grievance to FBI referral.
- Case 01 — The Regulatory Grenade. The detailed, credible complaint to the SEC, FINRA, or your state regulator. Why it lands hard even when most of it is distortion. (Rule 206(4)-7)
- Case 02 — The Recruited Hacker: An Incident Log. A fired IT manager, a criminal forum, and 340 client records. The full lifecycle of an insider handing his old firm to a threat actor.
- Case 03 — The Client Poisoning Campaign. Direct contact with your clients, using the list they walked out with. One round of calls can collapse a book. (Reg S-P, Reg S-ID)
- Case 04 — Reputation Infrastructure Attacks. BrokerCheck, Glassdoor, look-alike domains. Insider detail makes the noise credible enough to cost you the meeting. (Form ADV, Reg S-P)
- Case 05 — The Legal Entanglement. Filings designed to cost, not to win. UCC-1 liens, wage claims, and arbitrations that create disclosure events. (Form U4, Form ADV)
- Case 06 — The Physical Access Overhang. The credentials, keys, and codes nobody revoked. The simplest vector and the most often missed. (Reg S-P, Rule 204-2)
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