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Q&A: Resiliency in India

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The 2018 Lloyd’s City Risk Index was analyzed during the RIMS Risk Forum India in Mumbai, and it notes a possible turning point for the subcontinent’s cities regarding resiliency. In short, Indian cities were rated as weak, but recent government and public investments and campaigns that focus on strengthening infrastructures and people may strengthen those assessments.

During a November 14 morning session, “Assessing the Impact of Natural and Man-made Threats on India’s Economy,” Shankar Garigiparthy, country manager and CEO of Lloyd’s India discussed how much economic output (GDP) cities in India could lose annually as a consequence of various types of rare risk events – such as the Kerala floods this past July – or from more frequently occurring events such as cyberattacks.

He discussed with Risk Management Monitor reasons why he is hopeful for a resiliency turnaround in India and how the combined wills of the government, media, public and business can strengthen the country’s infrastructures and ultimately, its risk ratings.

RMM: How do India’s cities rank in Lloyd’s City Risk Index?

SG: Lloyd’s City Risk Index was published three months ago and we researched 279 cities. We found that a vast majority of cities within the subcontinent of India have been rated as very weak from a resilience point of view. They are at high risk for flood, geopolitical security, market crash, just to name a few.

RMM: What steps are being taken to improve the collective resiliency?

SG: What we have seen in last three or four years is a significant level of investment from the government in terms of building infrastructure. It’s been in the form of roads, bridges, railways, ports, and airports, there has been a significant level of investment. And it seems there is more to come. In the budget, the government has announced more – which is encouraging to see from an infrastructure-building point of view.

However, where we still see a bit of lack is in the area of insurance penetration in the country. That’s where I think insurance companies can be a useful partner and tool to mitigate some of the level of these risks.

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RMM: Could this be a chance for insurers to get in on the ground floor of India’s improvement projects?

SG: Yes.

RMM: What incidents have influenced the government to act?

SG: The Chennai floods [in 2015] and the floods in Kerala [in July]. That was a once-in-a-hundred-years occurrence. The entire state was flooded, which I think was the first of its kind. It was completely underwater.

Similarly, the Chennai floods marked another major event. Since then, monsoon has happened but the level of flooding has been managed pretty well.

In the session, we examined the Mumbai floods in 2005. And even last year, there was flooding here for a day, but within a day the water receded pretty quickly and was pumped out. The machinery kicked in and we were able to get out of it pretty well.

RMM: What led to that success?

SG: It was a combination of low tide and the government investing in the necessary pumping mechanisms to actually pump the water back into the sea, and unclog some of the stormwater drains as well. Steps are being taken, slowly but steadily.

RMM: What other institutions are taking measures to build resiliency?

SG: There are a few companies [which I won’t name] that are leading the way and it is encouraging to see that.

The media is also equally playing a fairly significant role as well. That’s also helping because public awareness is something that is critical. The media is raising awareness in terms of the importance of protecting your infrastructure and environment and the need for trees and planting.

RMM: Would you agree that the will to change and improve existing infrastructures is as important as the funding?

SG: I think it’s all there. The government has shown willingness to improve infrastructure. The people have demanded it, so there is a push and a pull coming from both sides. And we are seeing that development happen. Compared to where we were five or ten years ago and where we are now, there’s been a massive change.

There is still more that can be done. I’m not saying that we’re there yet. But it’s not an easy thing, as well.

Given India’s geography and how the political scenario is within the country, we will always be exposed to natural catastrophes.

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Flooding is going to be a constant phenomenon for us.

There is investment being done but it’s patchy. In some states there has been fantastic infrastructure investment and in others, less so. I think that has got to be addressed and that’s where the public [should be] demanding more actions there, where infrastructure investment has not been up to the mark.

Former NSA Director Talks Cybersecurity, Insurance at Advisen Conference

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NEW YORK—Advisen’s Cyber Risk Insights Conference, held during Cyber Week, featured risk management professionals and more than 18 panels and sessions on Oct. 25. The keynote was delivered by Adm.

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Michael S. Rogers, former Navy commander of U.S. Cyber Command and Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), under the administrations of  Presidents Obama and Trump. Rogers discussed rising cyber threats and offered advice to providers and consumers as they assess their cyber insurance policies.

“For insurers, you need to be prepared, because the list of actors is growing and the threat is growing,” Rogers said. “Don’t build on a strategy [where you believe] things are getting better.”

He also put a particular spotlight on the fact that there is no universally accepted guideline for cyber threats when considering acts of war. Cyber, he said, differs from traditional triggers because there’s typically no physical injury or loss of life.

“You have these wholly different international views, because nation-states in western democracies do not have ownership of the web,” he said. “They do not control their citizens and control the flow of data,” as opposed to countries with greater control of information.

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“Because you have these broad, polar views it’s been difficult at times, on an international level, to get a consensus on what a framework be like to set a cybersecurity standard,” which Rogers added, could help define how a cyber attack might be considered an act of warfare.

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He proposed an approach that could start nations on a path to a universally accepted guideline: “Can get we get a smaller subset of issues to coalesce around a core group of principles, start small, and build from there? I think we’ll have success that way.”

Rogers noted that he is a proponent and believes incentivization may be the key to keeping businesses safer and maintaining lower premiums, using features of the automotive industry as an example.

“Automatic brakes and safer vehicles, for example, were an incentive for the buyer and the seller,” he said. “Production and consumption were all incentivized to make better decisions. I don’t know if it will work [with cyber insurance]. It’s all about risk.”

Rogers’ insight dovetailed along with the new information from the eighth annual Advisen cyber survey that Zurich Insurance released at the opening of the conference.

The percentage of companies that purchase cyber insurance, either via stand-alone policies or endorsements, has increased 40 points since 2011. This year’s results show a 10% increase from 2017, the largest year-over-year increase since its inception.

“Cyberrisks continue to change and businesses continue to look for ways to protect themselves from those risks,” said Paul Horgan, head of North America Commercial Insurance for Zurich North America. “These survey results provide a critical snapshot of the attitudes, concerns and actions of risk managers. It is our responsibility to respond to their needs and concerns with innovative services and solutions.”

Survey results show the two most influential factors driving cyber insurance purchases in the past year:

  • regulatory changes such as the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and
  • business continuity risks such as the Dyn distributed denial of servicer (DDoS) attack, WannaCry and NotPetya events. These caused significant losses to businesses around the world, shutting down network systems and in many cases slowing or actually halting business operations.

The Advisen data reflects a stark contrast to the feedback from last year’s survey, which found that just 10% of respondents identified business interruption as the primary reason for purchasing cyber insurance and that purchase growth had gone stagnant after a steady six-year increase from 35% to 65%.

These factors were two of the top emerging cyberrisks identified by Risk Management magazine in early 2018.

Q&A: California Businesses Prepare for the Next Quake

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On October 18, more than 10 million Californians participated in The Great Shakeout to prepare for the next catastrophic earthquake and bring awareness to earthquake preparedness across the state. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) predicts a 99% chance of a magnitude 6.7+ earthquake in the Bay Area within the next 30 years, preparation is essential.

Kate Stillwell is a structural engineer and founder and CEO of Jumpstart, a new earthquake insurance provider which helps families and individuals following a disaster via text. As a business owner and lifelong Californian, Stillwell took part in the Shakeout and shared her experience and insight for earthquake preparedness.

Risk Management Monitor: How difficult is it to get businesses to take part in an event like the Shakeout?

Kate Stillwell: The trick is to make it fun. It only takes a few minutes, and if you can get some good laughs out of it, all the better. Also, for the San Francisco Bay Area, the anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake is always the same week as ShakeOut, so people remember and talk about it around the proverbial water cooler.

RMM: How beneficial is it for them to take part?

KS: It builds muscle memory. You need to know what to do without thinking because you won’t be thinking.  Just as important is that the drill strikes up a conversation about other ways to get prepared, not just at work, but at home, too.

RMM: What did you take away from this year’s event?

KS: We got a great video of ourselves and since we’re in a co-working space, we did it in front of all the other startups, which reminded them they need to practice and get prepared, too. 

RMM: What are some commonalities that small, medium and large businesses share when preparing for earthquakes?

KS: Businesses of all sizes must keep their employees safe. Employees need to know how to react, to “Drop, cover, and hold on,” like we emphasize during the ShakeOut, and to climb under desks or other sturdy objects and stay put. Businesses also generally face the challenge of convincing employees to take preparation seriously and review preparedness plans, that’s why national events like the Great ShakeOut are such an effective tool.

RMM: How do small, medium and large businesses differ when preparing?

KS: Small businesses have the advantage of all co-workers knowing one another and being able to physically look out for each other in the event of a disaster. For homeowners, we always say that neighbors are the people you’ll rely on in the event of a disaster, and it really is similar at work. Colleagues are able to look out for each other in the event of an earthquake, and this is much easier for smaller teams. In a larger business, you can replicate these positive effects by grouping people by team.

RMM: How have preparedness plans changed in recent years? What significant improvements, if any, have you noticed or instituted?

KS: The rapid development and improvement of earthquake sensor networks have been the most significant improvement in earthquake preparedness recently. The USGS ShakeAlert system began Phase 1 operations just a couple days ago, providing hospitals, transit systems, and other institutions the earliest possible earthquake warnings so they can initiate life-saving operations. It’s not enough time to evacuate a building, but it is enough time to stop the elevators and open the doors, so people don’t get trapped. These kinds of full-system improvements are making huge strides in helping us prepare and stay one step ahead of the next big earthquake.

RMM: What are some difficulties California businesses – or businesses with operations there – face, that differ from those in other high-risk areas?

KS: One of the biggest factors is downtime. There are so many externalities outside of a business’ control, which affect how soon an operation can get back up and running. The prudent approach for a business with operations in California is to locate any operations requiring continuous uptime, such as out-of-state data centers. Also, consider designating a secondary location for executive operations until the home facilities can be occupied.

RMM: What are the most effective safety drills businesses can perform?

KS: No matter what type of emergency, a really important drill is to practice an alternative chain of command with a command-and-control style of making decisions.  This is so foreign to the normal style of making decisions. In emergency situations, the best person to be in the “command” position is usually not the day-to-day business leaders; it’s someone with emergency response training.

Visit here for more information about Jumpstart.

Data Breaches Taking Slightly Longer To Detect, Study Finds

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Despite rising global awareness of data breaches in various industries, organizations experienced an increase in the number of days to identify a data breach over the last fiscal year. According to a new study conducted by the Ponemon Institute and published by IBM, it takes an average of 197 days for a company to identify a breach – up six days from 2017 – and an average of 69 days to contain it (which also showed a three-day increase from 2017).

“We attribute the increase in days to the growth in the use of IoT devices, extensive use of mobile platforms, increased migration to the cloud and compliance failures,” study authors said in 2018 Cost of Data Breach Study: Impact of Business Continuity Management.

This year’s study included 2,634 employees from 477 companies in 17 industries in 13 countries and two regions. The study found that the average total cost of a data breach in 2018 is .

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86 million; $1.45 million is attributable to the most-costly component, which is lost business cost. The least expensive component is data breach notification at The least expensive component is data breach notification at $0.16 million.

Ponemon also included a framework for measuring the cost of mega breaches, which are breaches involving at least 1 million compromised records. There is also a special analysis of the cost to recover from a data breach.

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Some notable findings include:

  • The average cost per compromised record at the surveyed organizations was $148 in fiscal year 2018, up from $141 in 2017 but down from $158 in 2016.
  • The larger the data breach, the less likely the organization will have another breach in the next 24 months.
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  • Healthcare organizations took an average of 55 days to detect a breach, but 1,037 days to contain it.

To download IBM’s survey, click here.