Cover Your Assets
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Why CYA

CYA is the result of a terrifying experience that one of CYA’s founders actually lived through. Imagine waking up one morning only to find that some or all of your financial assets are missing. The impact? Shock, guilt, confusion, anger, fear… helplessness, loneliness! This exact thing is what one of the founders of CYA had to face. It is as a result of actually being hacked that CYA was conceived.

One of the scariest things that had to be faced was: What do I do? Where do I get help? The victim reported the loss to the FBI, the local police and the state police. Unfortunately, the volume of financial hacks is so enormous, and increasing so quickly, that governmental bodies simply do not have the training or resources to help deal with them.

The victim, purely by coincidence, had a friend in Israel, where security is an important concern. As a result, he was able to locate an Israeli company that was able to trace some of the stolen assets… but it didn’t stop there. The money had been converted into “bitcoin”, a form of digital money. Ultimately the recovered bitcoin was placed in the hands of the United States government, which then had control of the stolen assets. The victim had to appear in court and convince the judge that the bitcoin belonged to him. This required an attorney knowledgeable in this area of the law. The judge ruled in favor of the victim, BUT the bitcoin then had to be converted into dollars in order to be deposited into a United States bank. The conversion required an exchange, similar to the New York Stock Exchange… and the process was very expensive. The victim had to navigate each step ALONE, without a roadmap. Yuck!!! See the chronological events of a hack, step by step.

After reflecting on the hack, four thoughts came to mind: (1) we are ALL potential targets of hacks; (2) we, individually, have to take preventative measures to protect our assets and to hopefully avoid being hacked; (3) there is no written roadmap to provide guidance; and (4) the number of scams is enormous. The point is, and this cannot be stressed too strongly, especially when you realize that government at all levels does not have the resources to provide meaningful assistance: you, and only you, can take preventative measures to protect your assets. Banks and financial institutions cannot be relied upon. Each of us is ALONE in this effort.

Upon further reflection, the conclusions we came to are: (1) it is mandatory to identify the detailed aspects of our lives that potentially leave each of us vulnerable to being hacked; and (2) to design a process, using the identified points of vulnerability, that deals with each of them in a logical, easily understood way. Thus CYA was born.

The following are some examples of the areas of our daily lives that leave each of us vulnerable:

  • Banking
    • Daily account balance check
    • Daily report by financial custodian
    • Wire transfers
  • Credit and debit cards
    • Security features
  • Credit reports
    • Credit report status
  • Paying bills
    • Post office
    • Use of checks
    • Bill pay app from financial custodian
  • Cell phone
    • Reboot
    • Call forwarding
    • Answering calls
  • Internet
    • Passwords
    • Two-factor identification
  • Financial custodians
    • Loss policies
    • Security features in app

Over time, additional points of potential vulnerability will be identified and added to this list. Actions must be determined and incorporated into a solution that is rigorous, repetitive and deals with each vulnerability. The last question was: How do you implement the actions so that they are not left to chance or memory, and are faithfully carried out? The answer: a website-based solution named CYA.

CYA’s approach is to provide three functional elements on its website:

(1) A series of periodic alert messages to remind “partners” of actions that should be taken in response to each of the vulnerabilities that are identified. The alerts are intended to ensure that partners continually take preventative actions to hopefully avoid being hacked.

(2) A LIBRARY containing articles arranged in categories related to the overall problem we are all facing. The library allows and encourages all partners to make comments and recommendations about each article. The hope and intention is to increase and improve our ability to proactively identify, and hopefully deal with, the threats of both scams and hacks in our increasingly digitally dependent world.

(3) A series of “special tools”. Special Tools provide you, a member of the CYA family, with the ability to take immediate action(s) in instances where information is both needed and valuable. The tools are intended to provide a degree of comfort and control, in order to hopefully help you avoid what might be a very stressful and painful experience. Each of the tools provides step-by-step, hand-holding instructions every time you use it. See the tools we presently offer.