For many affluent families, the greatest threats to their privacy and finances no longer arrive through the front door. They arrive by email, text, phone call, or a compromised smart home device. In Chubb’s 2025 survey of affluent North Americans, cybersecurity ranked as the top worry, ahead of health care. Chubb’s 2024 Wealth Report found that one in six households with more than $25 million in assets had experienced a cyberattack.
Wealthy families are attractive targets because they have more to steal, more public information available, and more people, including staff, advisors, and family members, who can be impersonated or manipulated.
The Threats Families Face Today
- Social engineering and wire fraud. Criminals impersonate a family member, attorney, or advisor and request an urgent transfer, often for a real estate closing or a purchase.
- Deepfakes. Artificial intelligence can now convincingly replicate a person’s voice and face, making a phone call from a “family member” in distress more believable than ever.
- Ransomware and extortion targeting home networks, personal devices, or family offices.
- Identity theft leading to fraudulent accounts, loans, or tax filings.
- Cyberbullying and online harassment, especially affecting children and teenagers.
- Smart home vulnerabilities in cameras, locks, thermostats, and home automation systems.
What Personal Cyber Insurance Can Cover
Personal cyber coverage is increasingly available as an endorsement to high-net-worth home policies or as a standalone policy. Depending on the carrier, it may include:
- Cyber extortion response, including expert negotiators and, where appropriate, ransom payments.
- Restoration of data, systems, and smart home devices.
- Financial fraud losses, including some social engineering and wire fraud.
- Identity theft restoration services and expenses.
- Cyberbullying response, which may include counseling, relocation, or legal costs.
- Breach notification and liability if your family’s devices are used to harm others.
Limits and definitions vary widely, especially for wire fraud, so we review the specific terms with every client.
Practical Steps to Protect Your Family
- Verify every payment request by phone, using a number you already have, not one provided in the message. Establish a family code word for urgent requests.
- Use multi-factor authentication on email, banking, and investment accounts.
- Separate home networks so smart devices, guests, and family computers are on different segments.
- Keep devices and routers updated, and replace default passwords on every smart device.
- Limit what you share online, including travel plans, children’s schools, and home details.
- Freeze your credit with all three bureaus when you are not actively applying for credit.
- Train household staff and assistants, who are often targeted because they can access calendars, accounts, and the home.
Family Offices and Business Owners
Families with a family office or closely held business face both personal and commercial cyber exposure. Personal cyber policies are not designed to protect a business, so we coordinate personal coverage with commercial cyber liability insurance where needed.
Protecting Children and Teenagers Online
Young people are often the most active members of a household online, and the most likely to share information unintentionally. Location sharing, posts about travel, photos of the home, and online gaming accounts can all expose a family to risk. Talk with children about privacy settings, unfamiliar contacts, and the importance of telling a parent if something seems wrong. Some personal cyber policies include cyberbullying coverage that can pay for counseling, temporary relocation, or legal help if a child is targeted.
What to Do If You Suspect Fraud
- Contact your bank or financial institution immediately to stop or recall any transfer. Speed matters, especially with wire transfers.
- Change passwords on affected accounts from a device you know is secure.
- Notify your advisor and your carrier promptly. Many cyber policies offer immediate access to response experts.
- Report the incident to law enforcement and, where appropriate, to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
- Preserve emails, messages, and records related to the incident.
Securing the Smart Home
Luxury homes increasingly rely on connected systems: security cameras, door locks, lighting, audio, climate control, gate access, and even pool and irrigation equipment. Each connection is a potential entry point. Work with a reputable integrator who sets unique credentials for every device, segments the home network, applies firmware updates, and documents who has administrative access. When staff, contractors, or integrators change, update access codes and remove old accounts. A periodic security review of the home network, much like an annual roof inspection, keeps small vulnerabilities from becoming serious problems.
Protection That Respects Your Privacy
At Eton Bridge, discretion is fundamental to how we serve our clients. We help families understand their cyber exposure, add appropriate coverage, and connect them with resources when something goes wrong. To discuss personal cyber protection, schedule a private conversation with your advisor.
