The Next Breach Will Start Here: Understanding Credential Risk in Wealth Management

In wealth management, trust is the cornerstone of client relationships and long-term success. Investors hand over access to their personal data, financial histories, and aspirations with the expectation these assets will be safeguarded with the highest level of care. Yet today, that trust is increasingly threatened by an overlooked vulnerability: credential exposure.

The Hidden Risk: Credential Exposure

Despite advanced security investments, most firms still rely on access systems that require human involvement with credentials — memorizing passwords, reusing logins, managing one-time codes, or relying on browser-stored credentials and password managers. Each of these creates an opportunity for attack. And with over 90% of cyber breaches starting with phishing and stolen credentials, one compromised login can unravel years of built trust and operational stability.

An Institutional Risk: The Impact of Credential Exposure

Credential exposure is not just a user-level risk — it is an institutional liability. Reused credentials across platforms can open doors for credential stuffing attacks. Shared logins introduce accountability issues. Stored passwords increase vulnerability to malware or lateral movement. Even trusted internal users can fall prey to phishing, inadvertently offering cybercriminals a direct route to client portfolios and firm systems.

The consequences extend far beyond the immediate breach. Business operations can be disrupted. Clients may lose confidence. Regulators can impose significant penalties. Reputational damage can have lasting effects. A single incident can trigger a cascade of litigation, scrutiny, and loss of assets under management.

The MyCena^® Approach: A Secure, Credential-Free Future

Addressing this requires more than another layer — it demands a foundational shift in how access is managed. MyCena^® introduces access without credential exposure. By separating identification from authentication, MyCena^® eliminates user access to credentials entirely. No passwords to manage, no codes to phish, no entry points to exploit.

After identification, MyCena^® encrypts and delivers credentials invisibly — users never see or handle them. Without credential knowledge, there is nothing to reuse, share, or give away.

By adopting an unphishable access model, wealth firms reduce risk, improve compliance, and strengthen digital trust.

A Step-by-Step Approach to Secure Access

Making a change to your firm’s security system can feel like a significant leap, but MyCena^® has designed a step-by-step process to make it simple and risk-free. Start with watching a demo and sign up for a limited trial to experience how MyCena^® works in practice. After your trial, you can choose one of our three packages and deploy to your organisation.

“Why MyCena^® Is the Secure Choice for Wealth Management”

Adopting MyCena^®’s unphishable access model helps wealth management firms reduce exposure to the most common breach vectors, resulting in fewer incidents, faster response times, and improved compliance. Firms that embrace MyCena^® experience measurable operational efficiency gains and heightened client confidence, knowing access to sensitive systems can’t be phished.

Proudly featured in the PIMFA WealthTech Cyber Security Factsheet, MyCena^® is recognized for tackling systemic risks and delivering practical value, helping firms maintain the trust of their clients as the AI threat landscape evolves.

Take the first step towards unphishable access with a limited-time trial exclusively for PIMFA members.

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Why Third-Party Access Is The Weakest Link in Enterprise Security

Last month, two major brands Marks & Spencer (M&S) and Coinbase—became the latest victims in a rising wave of cyberattacks against third-party helpdesk. These weren’t sophisticated zero-day exploits or state-sponsored hacks. They were inside jobs, made possible by human-managed credentials in the hands of third parties.

The fallout? Hundreds of millions in damages, disrupted operations, and shaken customer trust. Here's a breakdown of what went wrong, why it happened, and how MyCena^® makes this kind of breach impossible.

What Happened?

Marks & Spencer (M&S)

Hackers infiltrated M&S by exploiting a third-party contractor with access to their systems. Once inside, they stole personal customer data including contact details and order histories—and disrupted online operations. While financial data wasn’t accessed, the impact was still massive: halted online orders, lost revenue, legal fallout, and shaken customer trust.

• Estimated losses: £43 million per week in halted sales
• Market value impact: Over £1.2 billion wiped out
• Reputational cost: Rising customer complaints and a class-action lawsuit in progress

Coinbase

In Coinbase’s case, attackers bribed overseas customer support contractors to misuse their internal access. This allowed them to extract personal information on customers—names, IDs, masked bank details, and more. Even though login credentials and funds remained untouched, the breach triggered legal action, an extortion attempt, and hundreds of millions in projected losses.

• Ransom demand: $20 million
• Projected remediation costs: Between $180 million and $400 million
• Legal impact: Ongoing DOJ investigation + civil suits over failure to protect user data

Why It Happened

Despite their size and resources, both organizations relied on third parties to access critical systems using traditional identity-based methods—typically usernames and passwords or shared credentials. That’s the problem.

Traditional credential models are inherently flawed.
When credentials are managed by people—whether internal staff or external contractors—they can be phished, shared, reused, sold, or stolen. In both breaches, the attackers didn’t need to break in. They just found someone who already had a key—or made a copy of one.

This is the danger of third-party access in today’s connected supply chains: you inherit every weakness your vendors and partners have.

Here’s how MyCena^® makes third-party breaches impossible:

At MyCena^® , we’ve eliminated the problem at the root: we remove humans from credential management entirely.

Here’s how MyCena^® ’s Multi-Layer Dynamic Access Encryption Security (ML-DAES) prevents third-party credential breaches:

• Unphishable Credentials: MyCena^® generates and encrypts credentials automatically—users never see, create, or share passwords. That means nothing to phish, bribe, or mishandle.
• Access Segmentation: Third-party access is strictly limited by system and role, and each user only gets access to the specific system they need, preventing attackers from moving laterally.
• No Visibility = No Theft: Without credentials being visible, they can’t be phished, reused, or sold—even under coercion or bribery.
• Audit-Ready Logs: Every access action is tracked in real time, ensuring full governance and instant audit-readiness across internal and external users.

With MyCena^® , there’s no password reset to steal, no spreadsheet to leak, and no third-party weak link to exploit. Our technology removes the human risk factor by eliminating employee-managed credentials entirely, and third-party access doesn’t mean third-party risk.

Final Thought

The M&S and Coinbase breaches are wake-up calls for every business that shares access with partners, vendors, or contractors. You might trust them but can you trust their cybersecurity practices?

Ask yourself: Would you let vendors make physical copies of your office keys and hand them to unknown staff? That’s exactly what happens when you let humans manage digital credentials.

MyCena^® makes that scenario obsolete. With encrypted, automated, segmented access, you stay in control—even when access is shared.

Because when no one sees the keys, no one can steal them.

Ready to make phishing a thing of the past?

Book a demo with MyCena^® today and discover how encrypted, employee-free credential management can transform your cybersecurity posture.

Make Your Business Unphishable: Why Eliminating Passwords Changes Everything

Despite billions spent annually on cybersecurity tools, phishing remains the number one cause of data breaches. Why? Because those tools still rely on human-managed credentials and passwords can be phished.

MyCena^® changes the equation. By eliminating passwords entirely and replacing them with encrypted, invisible credentials, MyCena^® renders phishing useless and transforms access security into a proactive, automated defense.

The Real Problem: Human-Managed Credentials

In most businesses, employees are responsible for creating, remembering, and managing their own passwords. They reuse them across platforms, store them in unsecured documents, or fall for increasingly sophisticated phishing emails. As AI-generated threats become harder to detect, even well-trained staff can be tricked.

Traditional identity systems like SSO, MFA, and IAM don’t eliminate the root problem—they just add complexity around it. As long as credentials are visible to users, they’re exploitable.

The Solution: Encrypted, Automated, Invisible Access

MyCena^® encrypts and distributes access credentials directly to user devices. Because credentials are never visible to the employee, there’s nothing to steal, phish, or misuse. Phishing becomes impossible because there’s no bait.

With MyCena^® :

• No credentials are typed.
• No passwords are shared.
• No phishing attacks can succeed.

This isn’t just another layer of security. It’s a complete shift away from human-managed authentication to encrypted, invisible access.

Why It Matters for Business

1. Eliminate Phishing Risk – 100% Bait Removal

Most phishing attacks rely on one thing: tricking a person into entering credentials. With MyCena^® , there are no visible credentials to trick anyone into using. Even the most realistic fake login page, deepfake video, or AI-generated email becomes powerless. Without bait, the trap doesn’t work. Phishing isn’t just reduced—it’s eliminated.

2. Simplify Compliance – Be Audit-Ready By Design

Staying compliant with GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA, and other regulations often requires significant manual oversight—access logs, role assignments, credential hygiene. MyCena^® automates all of this. Credentials are segmented, access is governed by role, and activity is logged in real-time. Audits that used to take weeks now take minutes, and compliance becomes a continuous, automated process.

3. Boost Operational Efficiency – Free Up IT Teams

Password resets alone cost companies up to $70 per request. Multiply that by every employee, every year, and the wasted hours pile up fast. MyCena^® eliminates that burden. Onboarding and offboarding take seconds, not hours. IT teams reclaim 15–20% of their time and can finally focus on strategic projects instead of password firefighting.

4. Save Real Money – Breach Prevention Pays for Itself

The average cost of a data breach is $4.45 million. Credential-based breaches—caused by phishing, reuse, or theft—make up over 90% of those incidents. By removing passwords and encrypting access, MyCena^® helps businesses avoid catastrophic financial, legal, and reputational damage. In effect, the solution often pays for itself many times over in just one avoided breach.

5. Lower Cyber Insurance Premiums – Become a Low-Risk Profile

Insurers look at credential risk when assessing policy pricing. With no passwords in use and a fully encrypted, auditable system in place, companies using MyCena^® can demonstrate lower exposure and more robust protections. That often translates into significantly reduced premiums, better coverage terms, and greater insurability overall.

A Better Way to Secure Access

Instead of training employees to recognize phishing, remove the risk entirely. MyCena^® replaces passwords with automated, decentralized access that works across all environments—cloud, legacy, VPN, RDP, and SSH.

“People aren’t the problem. Passwords are. So we eliminated them.”

IAM vs. PAM: Why Understanding the Difference is Key to Your Cybersecurity Strategy

In today's digital landscape, managing access isn't just an IT task—it's a critical line of defense. Two terms often thrown around in the cybersecurity world are IAM (Identity Access Management) and PAM (Privileged Access Management) . They sound similar, and they are related—but mixing them up could leave your systems exposed in ways you didn't expect.

Let's break them down and explain how each plays a unique (and essential) role in keeping your organization secure.

What is IAM?

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the foundational layer of digital access control. It's like the front desk of your digital office—checking who each person is and what they're allowed to do.

IAM ensures that every user , whether it's an employee, customer, contractor, or partner, has the right level of access to the right resources —nothing more, nothing less.

IAM systems handle:

• Creating and managing user identities across systems
• Controlling logins with secure methods like Single Sign-On (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), or biometrics
• Automating onboarding and offboarding processes
• Assigning access based on roles (RBAC)
• Tracking who accessed what and when (audit trails)

Popular IAM tools: Okta, Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), Auth0

Think of IAM as the digital ID badge and access gate for everyone in your ecosystem.

What is PAM?

While IAM is about everyone , Privileged Access Management (PAM) is about the few — the users who hold the digital master keys.

PAM is a specialized subset of IAM focused on securing privileged accounts , such as system administrators, DevOps engineers, and IT staff. These accounts can access your most critical infrastructure, and if compromised, they can cause catastrophic damage.

PAM solutions are designed to:

• Store and manage powerful credentials in secure password vaults
• Monitor and record sessions of users with elevated privileges
• Enforce Just-In-Time (JIT) access (temporary, on-demand permissions)
• Detect unusual or risky behavior through user behavior analytics
• Enforce Segregation of Duties (SoD) to prevent conflicts of interest

Popular PAM tools: CyberArk, BeyondTrust, Delinea (formerly Thycotic)

Where IAM manages the front door for everyone, PAM secures the keys to the server room.

IAM vs. PAM: Quick Comparison

Why You Need Both

Relying on IAM without PAM is like having a well-guarded office lobby but no lock on the server room. Conversely, using PAM without IAM would be like locking up the IT admin while leaving the rest of the building open.

For a robust access security strategy, you need both IAM and PAM working together :

• IAM ensures everyone is verified and appropriately authorized.
• PAM ensures only the right people , at the right time, can touch your most sensitive systems—with oversight and control.

Final Thoughts

As cyber threats grow more advanced—especially with phishing, insider risks, and AI-driven attacks—relying solely on traditional identity or access tools leaves gaps. IAM and PAM are essential pieces of the security puzzle, but they still depend on one vulnerable element: human-managed credentials.

That's where MyCena^® comes in.

MyCena^® takes IAM and PAM a step further by removing the weakest link in the chain, passwords. With encrypted, automated credential management, MyCena^® ensures employees never create, see, or share credentials. That makes phishing irrelevant, access segmented, and compliance a breeze.

By complementing your IAM and PAM strategies, MyCena^® helps eliminate credential-based attacks entirely , simplifying governance while boosting your organization's resilience and efficiency.

No passwords. No phishing. No problem.

MyCena^®. Security done for you.

The $1.5B Lesson : Why Bybit—and the Industry—Must Leave Identity-Based Security Behind

In February 2025, one of the largest breaches in crypto history stunned the digital asset world. Bybit, a major exchange, lost $1.5 billion in a targeted cyberattack. Despite using multi-factor authentication (MFA), password policies, and access controls, the attackers succeeded—swiftly and silently.
This breach didn’t happen due to negligence. It happened because of a fundamental flaw in the industry’s security model.
The attack on Bybit revealed what many have suspected: identity-based security no longer works. And unless the industry evolves, these breaches will keep happening.
The Fatal Flaw: Identity Is Not Access
For years, digital asset platforms have relied on identity-based models—verify who someone is, then let them in. These systems use usernames, passwords, and tokens to confirm identity.
But here’s the problem: identification doesn’t prove authorization. Verifying who someone is doesn’t mean they should access a system. This identity-authentication gap is a critical weakness—and attackers exploit it daily.
In identity-based setups, one stolen credential—be it a password or API key—can open up entire systems. And once inside, attackers move laterally across platforms, wallets, and services. It’s exactly what happened at Bybit.
AI Has Outpaced Traditional Security
The rise of AI-powered attacks has made identity-based security even more vulnerable. Attackers now use automation, deepfakes, and hyper-targeted phishing to bypass human safeguards.
A 2024 Capgemini report showed that 97% of organizations experienced breaches linked to AI-generated threats. In Bybit’s case, attackers used phishing, SIM-swapping, and intercepted MFA codes to break through. Once they had access, the damage was instant—and irreversible.
Legacy tools like MFA and password managers can’t keep up. The attack surface has changed, but the defense strategy hasn’t.
A New Model: Encryption-Based Access with ML-DAES
To prevent these failures, the industry needs a new foundation. That’s where ML-DAES (Multi-Layer Dynamic Access Encryption Security) comes in.
ML-DAES eliminates passwords and API keys. Instead, it uses encrypted, application-specific credentials that users never see, store, or share. There’s nothing to phish, steal, or misuse. And because every credential is system-specific, even if one access point is compromised, it can’t be used elsewhere.
This shifts authentication away from identity toward encrypted authorization—a model that neutralizes phishing, prevents lateral movement, and removes insider credential risk.
What If Bybit Had Used ML-DAES?
Phishing emails would fail—there’d be no credentials to hand over.
SIM-swapping and MFA interception would be irrelevant.
API keys wouldn’t exist in a usable format.
Even if attackers breached one system, they’d go no further. ML-DAES would have segmented access, blocked lateral movement, and rendered stolen access useless.
In short: the breach wouldn’t have happened.
Beyond Security: Compliance and Efficiency
ML-DAES also automates compliance. With immutable, cryptographically signed access logs, firms meet regulations like MiCA, SEC, and GDPR effortlessly.
IT teams save time with no password resets or manual provisioning. And with fewer breaches, insurers lower premiums. The result is stronger security, smoother operations, and reduced costs.
The Industry Must Move Forward
The Bybit attack isn’t just a cautionary tale—it’s a turning point. Identity-based security is no longer viable in a world of AI threats and automated exploits.
To protect billions in digital assets—and the trust of investors—the industry must transition to encryption-based access models. ML-DAES offers a proven way forward.
The time to act is now. Not with more patches, but with a complete security rethink—one built for today’s threats, not yesterday’s assumptions. 

Eliminating the #1 Cyber Risk in Maritime Operations—Without Changing How …

In maritime cybersecurity, the most dangerous threat isn’t always the one making headlines. While malware and ransomware draw attention, over 90% of cyberattacks actually begin with something far simpler: stolen credentials.
In maritime operations, this vulnerability is magnified. High crew turnover, remote systems, widespread third-party access, and complex logistics create countless entry points. Passwords are routinely shared, reused, or stored insecurely—turning them into the weakest link in otherwise secure environments.
The hard truth? Your greatest cyber risk isn’t malware—it’s credential misuse. And no firewall or antivirus can fully protect your systems if access remains tied to passwords your crew must manage.
Why Traditional Access Models Fall Short
For decades, maritime organizations have relied on identity-based security—verify someone’s identity, then grant access. But this model hinges on employee-managed passwords, which are inherently flawed.
Despite training, phishing remains a persistent threat. Credentials are reused, forgotten, or exposed. And once one set is compromised, attackers can move laterally through connected systems, escalating the damage.
The root of the issue is a dangerous assumption: that knowing who someone is equates to confirming they’re authorized. This identification-authentication gap leaves maritime operations vulnerable to a single point of failure.
A Smarter Model: Encryption-Based Access with ML-DAES
To eliminate this risk, access control must evolve. MyCena’s Multi-Layer Dynamic Access Encryption Security (ML-DAES) removes passwords entirely from human control.
With ML-DAES, encrypted, dynamic, system-specific credentials are automatically created and distributed—without ever being seen or handled by employees. There’s nothing to share, store, or steal. Even if someone clicks on a phishing link, attackers are left empty-handed.
This approach makes access tamper-proof, phishing-proof, and audit-ready—without changing how your crew operates.
In high-risk maritime scenarios like port operations, across shipping fleets or offshore platforms with rotating teams, ML-DAES secures all systems access without disrupting workflows.
Compliance Made Simple—And Cost-Efficient
ML-DAES doesn’t just boost security—it simplifies compliance with GDPR, IMO, and other maritime regulations. Automated credential management and real-time access logs make audits seamless. IT teams save time, and organizations often qualify for lower cyber insurance premiums thanks to dramatically reduced breach risk.
Chart a New Course in Cybersecurity
You can’t stop threats from targeting your ships. But with ML-DAES, you can stop them from getting in.
This is more than a cybersecurity solution—it’s a strategic shift that strengthens resilience, protects data, and builds trust across your entire operation. Ready to reduce risk and take the burden off your crew?
Contact us today to schedule a tailored demo or request a security assessment for your maritime operations.