January 28 is Data Privacy / Protection Day. Abacus Group is an official Data Privacy Day Champion. In addition to the infographic below, be sure to check out our post with data privacy tips and tools. #PrivacyAware 

Today, January 28, is officially Data Privacy / Protection Day.

Data Privacy Day began in the US and Canada in January 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day celebration in Europe. Data Protection Day commemorates the January 28, 1981, signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection. Data Privacy Day is observed annually on January 28.

In partnership with the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), Abacus Group has registered as an official Data Privacy Day Champion, showing our support and dedication for respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust. As part of our role as a Champion, we want to share some important data privacy tips and tools provided by the NCSA.

Abacus is proud to encourage all of our employees to participate in community service and volunteering. As a company, we provide opportunities throughout the year for employees to take paid time away from the office to volunteer through various opportunities with community non-profits we partner with. This is especially important in the lead up to the holidays, helping those less fortunate. We want to send a special shout-out to all our dedicated employees who took time to participate in our 2018 holiday community service initiatives!

By Chris Grandi, CEO at Abacus Group 

I was honored to be invited as a speaker at Boston Private’s 2018 Venture & Private Equity Conference in Cape Cod, MA, last month. During the three-day event, I spoke at a roundtable along with Kevin Daury, CFO at Westview Capital Partners, about cybersecurity best practices. During the session, I provided tips and advice to CFO’s and COO’s on how to develop and manage a cybersecurity program for their firms.

Cybersecurity has become much more important in the investment management space. All managers are concerned about the protection and safety of their data and digital assets.

By Anthony Hartzog, Director of Global Remote Support at Abacus Group 

Since joining Abacus Group in 2012, I’ve worked across many areas of the company, originally as an onsite support tech and then as one of our first remote support technicians. I also created and assumed the role of our first remote support dispatcher. Through the encouragement of growth opportunities within Abacus, I eventually became a team lead, manager and now director of our global remote support team, based in our Dallas office. I have a BA in Information Science with a minor in Business and Computer Science. Prior to Abacus, I worked in IT at the Federal Court.

The majority of our remote support team resides in Dallas, but, to account for our global presence and different time zones, we also have team members based in a variety of regions, including New York City, San Francisco, LA and London. Our service desk is a truly global framework with UK staff fielding issues for US clients, and vice versa, which has allowed our client base to grow with minimal Abacus growing pains.

By Tom Cole, Director – Europe at Abacus Group 

Prior to joining Abacus Group in 2016, I worked within hedge funds and a FinTech start-up. My responsibilities evolved from being a hands-on techie into more leadership and governance duties. During these roles, I had direct experience with working via in-house, co-sourced and outsourced models of IT. Joining Abacus was outside of my comfort zone, as I was most at home being on the client side versus the service provider side. Calling upon my technical and business experience, I conducted a one month rigorous operational due diligence on Abacus prior to affirming my decision to join the company. The outcome surpassed my expectations and fueled my excitement to join the Abacus team, leveraging a proven blue print for service delivery to Europe. I’ve now been leading the European region for Abacus for the last two years, and during the last year, our European client-base has grown by over 150%.

I wanted to share the top four IT challenges that Abacus addresses for alternative investment firms, allowing us to excel in our field.