Category Archives: Insurance

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Using ERM to Protect Your Business from The Equifax Fallout

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As with many data breaches, the general conclusion of the Equifax attack is that personnel were not aware of the issue beforehand. This conclusion, however, is false.

In early September, I anticipated that a vulnerability in Equifax’s software was known ahead of time, and that this scandal was, therefore, entirely preventable. A month later, the NY Times reported that the Department of Homeland Security sent Equifax an alert about a critical vulnerability in their software. Equifax then sent out an internal email requesting its IT department to fix the software, but “an individual did not ensure communication got to the right person to manually patch the application.”

The Equifax data breach was a failure in risk management. As a credit bureau that deals with the personally identifiable information (PII) of 200 million U.S. customers, Equifax has a legal and moral responsibility to safeguard their customers’ security, and to adopt the proper systems to do so.

For instance, if Equifax had an enterprise risk management (ERM) system in place, the warning from Homeland Security would have been properly recorded and assigned out to the appropriate personnel. This system would have provided transparency over the status of the task in progress, and would have triggered reminders until the vulnerability was patched and verified by the right subject matter expert.

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A Point of No Return

It’s my opinion that this scandal is a point of no return for risk management. While data breaches have abounded in recent years, there has never been one of this magnitude or one that provides every piece of information hackers need to steal our identities. Of course, lawsuits and penalties are piling up around the company’s negligence, but these financial losses are nothing compared to the reputational damages Equifax will suffer—shares fell by 18% following the breach and have yet to fully recover.

What makes this scandal so unique, and therefore a point of no return, is that these reputational damages reach far beyond Equifax. Consumers can’t always choose whether they’re a customer of Equifax, but they can choose whether to do business with the institutions that gave away their information to Equifax in the first place.

I also believe that consumers’ outrage with this scandal will cause them to shift their money, loyalty, and trust to institutions that can demonstrate effective risk management. CEOs and boards of every company will have to prove their organizations have adequate enterprise risk management systems in place. They’ll find that more effective risk management and governance programs are necessary to keep their market shares up and their reputation clean.

Where to Go from Here

While this breach may appear to be an event of the distant past, we are in the eye of the storm. Stolen information can lie dormant for months or years as criminals wait to make their move, and when they do, you’ll have either taken this period of calm as a chance to forget the scandal, finding yourself ill-prepared, or a chance to get to higher ground, finding yourself fully protected.

To protect themselves, businesses must:

  • First, to determine where to focus your security resources, recognize that people, processes, and procedures are now the biggest risks. Businesses need to perform risk assessments across all departments to determine who has access to sensitive information and authentication processes, and what the business impact would be if these employees were to be impersonated.
  • Next, to address these risks, businesses must rewrite their procedures for authenticating the people involved in sensitive requests and actions both verbally and electronically. With so much PII now in the public domain, it is no longer safe to rely on traditional authentication based on these pieces of information.
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    For example, the security question “What was your first car?” is not effective because the answer is now easily accessible.

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    A more effective question would be “Who was your best friend in elementary school?”

  • Finally, it is important to keep your third-party vendors in mind. Vendors often have access to sensitive information and processes, which could have an enormous impact on your company. It is crucial, therefore, to extend your internal authentication procedures out to your third parties so that they are authorizing sensitive requests and actions as securely as your own organization.

Our world, including the business world, is becoming increasingly transparent, meaning it’s up to you to act with integrity and protect your stakeholders. Keeping the Equifax data breach in mind, along with enacting these tactical steps, will help you stay ahead of the competition and out of glaring social media headlines.

2017 Storms Break Records

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The 2017 hurricane season is finally behind us, but it left its mark with two Category 5 hurricanes and one Category 4 striking within weeks of each other, causing an estimated $300 billion in damage. In fact, 2017 broke records, including the strongest storm—Irma—and the longest-lasting storm, which was Hurricane Harvey.

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Other natural disasters in 2017 also did their share of damage, including hailstorms and 1,496 tornadoes compared to an average of 1,202.
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Then there were the wildfires, which burned more than 9 million acres of land.

Highlights of 2017 are summarized below by Interstate:

Keeping Parades and Events Safe for Businesses and Employees

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Holiday parades will be marching down many U.S. city streets during the next six weeks, with millions of revelers expected to attend. And while these are historically joyous occasions, safety is a top concern for businesses located near the festivities—especially considering the high-profile violence that has recently dominated headlines. Rezwan Ali, risk solutions group head of security at Falck Global Assistance, which advises companies about security, safety and travel risks, spoke about the challenges and best practices faced by businesses and employees located near parade routes.

Risk Management Monitor: How are companies responding to the rise in low-tech terrorism and violence?

Rezwan Ali: Companies have become more aware of the need for crisis management. Recent terror events in cities such as Paris, London, Las Vegas and New York have shown companies that duty of care is much more than just health and safety – it is knowing where your employees are traveling and aiding them if affected by terror or violent events. As companies become more globally oriented, their employees are required to travel more, which expands the company’s duty of care responsibility and creates a need for travel risk management. In recent years, there has been an increase in the demand for travel risk management, which originates in a company’s acknowledgement of providing duty of care services to travelling employees to mitigate the possible impact of attacks on the business, its reputation and employees.

RMM: What steps can businesses take to prevent disruption?

RA: The best way to mitigate disruption caused by terrorism is to be prepared at both the business and individual level. On a business level, companies should implement a crisis management process and a contingency plan. A crisis management process includes appointing a crisis management team and training the organization using various scenarios. The contingency plan provides guidelines on how to maintain business as usual when a crisis occurs and works in parallel with the crisis management process. On an individual level, training can provide employees with tools to cope with stressful situations and alleviate the impact of an incident. When employees know how to manage demanding situations, the effect on the company will also be minimized.

RMM: How can businesses located near a parade route or major event protect their employees?

RA: All businesses should have emergency and evacuation plans, which can be applied in the event of emergency. These plans should cover procedures for evacuating the office, safe areas and roles and responsibilities. Businesses located in areas identified as potential targets for terror attacks should incorporate specific emergency measures related to terrorism into their plans. They should also ensure that all employees know and understand that the emergency plans exist.

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These plans could include guidelines for what to do should a terror attack take place outside the office, as well how to react in the event of an active shooter. It is crucial that these plans and procedures are trained, exercised and tested.

Having an office in an area prone to various incidents requires the company to be informed of relevant developments. Sound intelligence can alert the company of an event, enabling quick initiation of applicable plans.

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Many companies use their network to provide intelligence or rely on local media to provide alerts. Regardless of the information, it is important to use trustworthy sources to ensure validity. The company can choose to develop a trigger system that determines whether the alert should activate any emergency procedures.

RMM: How likely is it that someone will be a victim of terrorism or violence during a large event?

RA: Although terrorism has severe consequences, the likelihood of being a victim of terror is low when compared to other risks such as traffic accidents and illness. The impact of a traffic accident on the individual can still be high, while the impact on the business will be minimal, in most cases.

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 What makes terror so dangerous is not likelihood, but the fear of it happening. Terror literally means “fear,” and it is the uncertainty and severity of terror that is pivotal for how we perceive it. Employees may express a somewhat irrational fear that must be addressed and taken seriously by the company, as it affects the employee and his/her work.

Insurance Industry Responds to House Approval of NFIP Renewal

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Insurance industry trade groups lauded the U.S. House of Representatives’ vote on Nov.

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14, reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The 21st Century Flood Reform Act (H.R. 2874) would reauthorize the program for five years and enact operational changes.

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Advocates from RIMS, the risk management society, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, and SmarterSafer.org also asked that the Senate waste no time in passing its version of the measure before its expiration on Dec. 8.

On Sept. 8, President Trump signed legislation passed by both houses to extend NFIP authorization until Dec. 8, which previously had been set to expire Sept. 30.

Dow Jones reports that the act’s reforms include:

  • Authorizing $1 billion to elevate, buy out or mitigate high-risk properties
  • Capping flood insurance premiums at $10,000 per year for homeowners
  • Removing hurdles to the private flood insurance market, which often offers better coverage at lower cost than the NFIP
  • Providing for community flood maps and a homeowner’s ability to appeal their flood designation
  • Better aligning NFIP rates to match a property’s true risk, particularly for in-land and lower-value properties
  • Improving the claims process for flood victims
  • Addressing repeatedly flooded properties, which account for 2% of NFIP policies but 25% of claim payments

While it applauded the U.S. House of Representatives for deciding to reauthorize the NFIP, RIMS, the risk management society, also urged the Senate to quickly follow-up before the program’s Dec. 8 expiration. Allowing the NFIP to expire would have “significant repercussions, impacting both corporate and residential property owners,” said RIMS Vice President Robert Cartwright Jr.

“Nearly five million American consumers rely on the NFIP to protect their homes, properties, and businesses,” said Nat Wienecke, senior vice president of federal government relations at the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI). “A long-term reauthorization is needed to provide consumers and markets with reliability and stability when it comes to flood insurance coverage.

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SmarterSafer.org, a coalition of taxpayer advocates, environmental groups, insurance interests, housing organizations and mitigation advocates, said in a statement that this year’s “historic hurricane season has pushed the nation’s debt-ridden flood insurance program past the point of bankruptcy once again, so we applaud the House for passing a legislative package that reforms the NFIP to ensure the program is financially sustainable for the future.” The organization also lauded the House for investing in recommended measures including “mapping and mitigation, addressing affordability and providing consumer choice in the flood insurance marketplace.”

The NFIP was created more than 50 years ago to provide affordable flood insurance as private insurers pulled out of the market. The program’s large debt led Congress to cancel $16 billion of its debt last month. NFIP now has about $6 billion to pay claims and $10 billion left that it can borrow from the Treasury Department, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages the program.