The Pensions Administration Standards Association (Pasa) has emphasised the importance of administrators in mitigating against the risk of cybercrime in pension schemes, amid increased industry concerns.

As reported by our sister title, Pensions Age, the association has urged administrators to strengthen their cybercrime resilience and ensure all third-party suppliers have done likewise, as well as ensuring they have independent assurance of this reliance.

Administrators were also advised to make sure that, if a cybercrime does take place, they can still undertake all key functions, including settling and paying benefits.

Pasa stated that is aware of the “current heightened interest from cybercriminals” in the pensions sector, warning that this has the potential to have a “very serious impact” unless administrators are properly protected.

The group is currently finalising guidance on how to maintain resilience in the face of cybercrime, as well as producing new standards that will be incorporated into its accreditation process, both of which will be published in September.

Industry experts have warned of an increased threat of fraud and cybercrime throughout the pandemic, with The Pensions Regulator stressing that scammers were “thriving” in the current pandemic after ActionFraud data showed £5.1m has been lost to fraud since February alone.

This also follows previous analysis by Crowe and the University of Portsmouth, which revealed that despite pension fraud costing the sector around £6bn a year, a quarter of pensions schemes do not have a plan to respond to cybercrime, while just 22 per cent had received cybercrime scenario-based training.

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