Asset manager VanEck has joined the list of companies in the wealth management industry that have had to contend with a cybersecurity headache, according to CEO Jan van Eck.
“We got hacked several months ago,” he said, during a panel discussion at the Future Proof festival in Huntington Beach in California Wednesday. “Basically social engineering is happening every day at almost every company you've ever heard of,” he added.
Large RIAs and wealth management firms have certainly found themselves in hackers’ crosshairs in recent months.
During his panel discussion at Future Proof, van Eck emphasized the safeguarding of client assets, which he described as “the most important thing.” The attackers who targeted VanEck, he noted, “were many layers away from that.”
He also stressed that VanEck doesn’t keep people’s personal data.
Cyberattacks are nothing new in the wealth management industry. Earlier this year the office of the Maine attorney general said that 1,581 clients of LPL Financial were affected in a phishing scam that took place Nov. 10, 2025. Separately, a March data breach at Ameriprise Financial affected 47,876 clients, according to the Maine attorney general.
Earlier this year, Mariner Wealth Advisors disclosed a cloud breach affecting nearly 9,000 people and Massachusetts hit Fidelity Brokerage Services with a $1.25 million fine over a client information data breach dating back to 2024.
At FutureProof, the VanEck CEO used the panel to share some cybersecurity advice, as well as deliver a warning for firms in the asset and wealth management space. “Just be super clear about who has what data,” he said. Companies, he added, should also not think of AI as their friend when it comes to cybersecurity.
Van Eck’s fellow panelist Kate Burke, CEO of Allspring Global Investments also highlighted the challenges that wealth and asset management firms face from AI-fueled cyberattacks. “The cost of protecting yourself from a cybersecurity attack is increasing, from an AI attack, is increasing all of the time,” she said. “And so we work with partners to ensure we're safe, we work with our vendors to understand what their protocols are.”
AI-driven cyberattacks have already caught the attention of RIAs, who say that no company is too small to be targeted.
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