Cybersecurity for Third-Party Administrators

DOL Cybersecurity Compliance for TPAs

The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has established clear cybersecurity expectations for ERISA plan fiduciaries. As a TPA handling participant data for 401(k) plans, profit sharing plans, cash balance plans, Section 125 cafeteria plans, and ESOPs, you're expected to meet rigorous security standards.

Our cybersecurity services are designed specifically for retirement plan administrators, addressing the unique compliance requirements that generic IT providers don't understand.

How We Address the 12 DOL Cybersecurity Best Practices

1. Formal, Documented Cybersecurity Program

We help you establish and maintain a written cybersecurity policy tailored to your TPA operations, documenting your security controls, procedures, and responsibilities.

2. Annual Risk Assessments

Regular vulnerability assessments and risk analysis identify gaps before they become breaches. We provide documented findings you can present during plan sponsor reviews and DOL audits.

3. Third-Party Audit of Security Controls

Our infrastructure operates within a SOC 1 and SOC 2 compliant datacenter. We help you demonstrate independent validation of your security posture.

4. Clearly Defined Security Roles

We work with your team to establish clear ownership of security responsibilities, ensuring accountability across your organization.

5. Strong Access Control Procedures

Multi-factor authentication, role-based access controls, and privileged access management protect participant data from unauthorized access.

6. Third-Party Vendor Security Reviews

As your IT partner, we undergo regular security assessments and maintain documentation you can provide to plan sponsors evaluating your vendor relationships. CRC Cloud carries Technology E&O and Cyber Liability insurance—meeting the same due diligence standards we help you demonstrate.

7. Cybersecurity Awareness Training

Regular phishing simulations and security training ensure your team can identify and respond to social engineering attacks targeting retirement plan data.

8. Secure System Development Life Cycle

Our infrastructure management follows secure development practices, with changes reviewed, tested, and documented before deployment.

9. Business Resiliency Program

Comprehensive disaster recovery and business continuity planning ensures you can maintain operations and recover participant data after any incident.

10. Data Encryption

Participant PII is encrypted both at rest and in transit, meeting the DOL's data protection expectations for ERISA plans.

11. Strong Technical Controls

Our NIST CSF 2.0 aligned security stack includes 24/7 SOC monitoring, EDR/MDR endpoint protection, email security, and vulnerability management.

12. Incident Response Procedures

Documented incident response plans ensure rapid detection, containment, and notification—critical for meeting breach notification requirements.