Category Archives: Business Interruption

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Smaller Companies At Higher Risk of Employee Theft

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While every organization is at risk of employee theft–with the typical company losing 5% of revenue to fraud each year–smaller organizations with less than 500 employees (72%) were the most targeted.

According to The 2015 Hiscox Embezzlement Watchlist: A Snapshot of Employee Theft in the U.S., of the smaller companies targeted, four out of five had less than 100 employees and more than half had fewer than 25 employees. Smaller organizations also had the largest losses, according to the survey. Financial services companies were most at risk (21%), followed by non-profits, labor unions and municipalities.

Hiscox noted steps organizations can take to minimize employee theft, adding that this is most important for small- to medium-sized businesses, which can be more impacted by theft. In fact, the survey found that 58% showed no recovery of their losses.

Perpetrators of crime include tellers, bookkeepers and office managers. There is also a wide variety of schemes that have been used. 

Data Protection in the Cloud: Planning for Data Loss and Downtime

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As we brace for another season of tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, earthquakes and floods, all businesses should be asking, “Is our data protected should disaster strike?” Or more simply, “What happens if we lose our data?”

Sadly, despite the fact that significant portions of the country are at risk for severe weather and other natural disasters, not all businesses are thinking pragmatically about catastrophic data loss and downtime, which can lead to staggering financial losses and impact productivity, reputation, regulatory compliance, and ultimately the bottom line.

According to a global data protection study released in December, enterprises are losing as much as .

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7 trillion annually through data loss and unplanned downtime. Data loss is up 400% since 2012, and two-thirds of the 3,300 organizations surveyed had experienced data loss in the last 12 months. Researchers found that although a high percentage of organizations had disaster recovery plans in place, surprisingly few had implemented data protection practices and fewer than half employed remote, cloud-based data protection. Seventy-one percent of organizations were not fully confident in their ability to recover after a disruption.

If your business is unprepared for a disaster, then act now to improve your resilience and mitigate risk. Plan for natural catastrophes and man-made disasters alike (such as theft, hardware failure, human error, system failure, computer viruses, power failure and accidental deletion).

Disaster preparedness begins with a business continuity plan. This serves as your playbook for staying in business following a disaster and it enables you to restore operations and communications systematically while helping minimize risk. Ask your IT department to incorporate the steps needed to safeguard your IT infrastructure from disaster, including backup and recovery measures.  In today’s highly-regulated environment, having a secure backup and recovery solution that meets the stringent requirements defined by Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, HIPAA, FISMA, PCI, ISO and other regulatory standards is expected.

During this process, develop a clear understanding of where the cloud fits in and how it can help save time, money and resources.

Businesses are increasingly backing up their data and apps in a secure, off-site cloud environment (not in the physical office), because the cloud is faster than other options and typically offers the most protection at the lowest cost.

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Recovery in the cloud requires no travel and no extra hardware, and it offers extreme levels of reliability.

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Should disaster occur, a cloud solution allows the continuously backed up systems to be restored as virtual machines. All of the cloud’s benefits speak to why highly regulated businesses protecting sensitive data are finding that virtualization technologies make it simpler to comply with stringent security and compliance regulations governing electronic storage and access to data.

Here are seven steps to help businesses plan for data loss and downtime:

  1. Identify the risks. List and categorize all natural and man-made threats and their impact on various systems. Ask what would it take to knock out our entire network and how much unplanned downtime can our business sustain?
  2. Inventory IT assets. Which are most critical to maintaining business continuity? What’s our tolerance for loss of those assets? The cost of the response should be balanced against your tolerance for system downtime.
  3. Define goals. In a worst case scenario, how long can our business shut down? Does it need to recover off-site? Define goals in terms of RPO (Recovery Point Objective, “How much data can we lose?”) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective, “How long can we be down?”).
  4. Develop a plan. Include “IT Assets Inventory,” data protection procedures and contingency plans, notification/activation schedules, a list of roles and responsibilities, a list of resource requirements, and details about training provisions. Good plans include maintenance and backup/recovery testing schedules.
  5. Understand the cloud’s benefits. Virtualization technologies make backup and disaster recovery vastly faster, cheaper and easier. The combination of the cloud and the right backup and disaster recovery solution allows for continuous data protection (so the backups always run 24/7/365) as well as consistent compliance and security.
  6. Implement the plan. If executives understand clearly the consequences of system disruptions, you will win their support and funding for contingency policies.
  7. Test the plan. Continuous testing and plan updating helps ensure business survival.

P&C Rates Drop 1% in March

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The composite rate for property and casualty insurance dropped 1% in March compared to March 2014, indicating a softening market, according to MarketScout.

“March is an important month. There is a considerable volume of U.S. business placed with both the U.S. and international insurers,” noted Richard Kerr, CEO of MarketScout. “While a small change from February, the downward adjustment in rates may be an indicator of what is to come for the next six months.”

By coverage classification, general liability and umbrella/excess liability dropped from up 1% in February to flat or 0% in March. Commercial auto, professional liability, and employment practices liability (EPLI) were also down 1% in February as compared to March. No coverages reflected a rate decrease.

By account size, small accounts (up to $25,000 premium) adjusted downward from up 2% to up 1%. Large accounts ($250,000 to $1,000,000 premium) were flat as compared to up 1% in February. The rates for all other accounts were unchanged.

Industry classifications all remained the same as in February, except for contracting and transportation, which were up 1%t in March, compared to up 2% in February. Habitational was flat or up 0% in March, compared to up 1% in February.

Summary of the March 2015 rates by coverage, industry class and account size:

By Coverage Class
Commercial Property Up 1%
Business Interruption Up 0%
BOP Up 1%
Inland Marine Up 0%
General Liability Up 0%
Umbrella/Excess Up 0%
Commercial Auto Up 1%
Workers’ Compensation Up 0%
Professional Liability Up 1%
D&O Liability Up 1%
EPLI Up 1%
Fiduciary Up 0%
Crime Up 0%
Surety Up 0%

 

Study Lists Most and Least Resilient Countries

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Businesses are more dependent on their supply chains than ever, with supply chain disruption one of the leading causes of business instability. To thrive, companies need to be resilient, and part of that is their location and the location of suppliers. According to FM Global’s 2015 FM Global Resilience Index, Norway tops the list of resilient countries, with Switzerland in second place.

The study’s purpose is to help companies evaluate and manage their supply chain risk by ranking 130 countries and regions in terms of their business resilience to supply chain disruption. Data is based on: economic strength, risk quality (mostly related to natural hazard exposure and risk management) and supply chain factors (including corruption, infrastructure and local supplier quality).

According to the study:

1. Norway retains its top position in the index from last year, with strong results for economic productivity, control of corruption, political risk and resilience to an oil shock. The country’s management of fire risk offers opportunity to improve still further.

2. Despite its massive oil reserves, Venezuela ranks 130, placing it at the bottom of the index, and reflecting the many challenges South America faces, ranging from economic and political to geological, with its west coast on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’.

3. Taiwan has jumped the most in the index – 52 places in the annual ranking to 37; more than any other country. Its rise is due mainly to a substantial improvement in the country’s commitment to risk management, as it relates both to natural hazard risk and fire risk. Given the country’s location at the western edge of the Philippine Sea plate, this is a welcome development.

4. Ukraine, ranked 107, and Kazakhstan, ranked 102, dropped more places this year than any other country; a fall of 31 places each. Unsurprisingly, for Ukraine, the worsening political risk, combined with poorer infrastructure, was to blame. The fall for Kazakhstan this year reflects a poorer commitment to natural hazard risk management in the region.

5. In the European Union (EU), Greece fell from position 54 to 65. The recent victory of the anti-austerity Syriza party almost certainly will usher in a period of greater friction and turbulence with its EU partners.

6. France, ranked 19, trails Germany at 6, the leading EU nation. France has slid down the index in recent years reflecting a rising risk of terrorism – evidenced tragically in Paris – and deteriorating perceptions of both infrastructure and local suppliers. Also exposed to terrorism risk is the United Kingdom, which nevertheless held steady at 20 for the third year running, aided by its relative resistance to oil shocks.

New to the top 10 this year are Qatar, ranked 7, and Finland, ranked 9. Qatar benefits from its macroeconomic stability, efficient goods and labor markets and high degree of security. The country owes its rise of 8 places to a considerable improvement in commitment to fire risk management in the region. Finland’s strengths derive from its innovative capabilities, a product of high public and private investment in research and development, strong links between academia and private sector companies, and an excellent record in education and training, according to the study.

In 10th place is U.S. Region 3, the central region of the United States. While this part of the country is subject to a variety of natural hazards, there is less exposure than states on the east or west coasts of the country. Belgium, ranked 11, and Australia, ranked 14, dropped out of the top 10–barely–and both countries retain high positions in the 2015 index.