Milliman announced a new security feature on its Millimanbenefits.com participant portal, designed to allow account holders to put a stop on withdrawals and loan transactions.

According to the firm, the new Account Lock feature allows participants to secure their accounts to prevent any distributions or loans from being initiated while it is locked. The firm says this tool gives participants an added layer of defense against external security threats.

Participants can activate this feature in the Personal Profile section on MillimanBenefits.com. Once a participant has elected to “lock” their account, the individual will receive a special code to use in the future to initiate a transaction to remove funds from the account.

“Most plan participants are still accumulating retirement savings and won’t be taking money from their plan anytime soon, which is what makes Account Lock such an obvious security upgrade,” says Laura Van Domelen, principal and defined contribution client relations leader.

The announcement from Milliman comes during a time of increasing plan sponsor and provider focus on cybersecurity and data management. Being fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), retirement plan officials are tasked with monitoring and managing cybersecurity risk as they invest participant dollars. As outlined in a report from Corporate Insight, “Trends in Online Security: 1996 to Today,” this is no simple task, and it has grown markedly more complex in the last two decades as the role of big data technology has ballooned.