Cyber security has become an essential part of protecting your digital presence, especially in the world of insurance, where a lot of personal information could be at risk. Cyber attacks have been on the rise for years, with more technologies than ever before readily available for those who have the knowledge to use them. This growth has come at the same time as insurance companies are migrating towards digital channels for stronger customer relationships, so it’s no surprise that cyber attacks have increased.
The insurance sector is under constant pressure to embrace innovation and modernise their systems as customers now expect services on demand. Being able to provide real-time insurance with an improved customer experience will put your business above competitors. However, this means that cyber security must be ready to protect the new systems and software that are being introduced for this real-time insurance.
With that being said, we will explore the digital age of insurance and create a useful guide that will help you be able to find the right cyber security for your insurance business.
Cyber security in insurance
Due to the size of the insurance industry and just how much personal data is consumed by insurance businesses in the digital age, cyber security becomes vital.
When we sign up for insurance, we are forced to give over our contact details, financial information and sometimes health information to insurers before we receive their services. Insurance companies want to keep this information as safe as possible to avoid it getting in the wrong hands, which could result in potential lawsuits by clients. This is why they need cyber security for insurance.
Cybersecurity within the insurance industry employs the same techniques as other industries that hold similar information. Criminals often conduct cyber attacks to get information that they can sell or use for ransom, so every industry that stores personal data needs to make sure that strong cyber security is in place.
Insurance industry risk management
When it comes to risk management, security specialists and risk managers will typically agree that there are four options when dealing with risks. These are staying away from anything risky, mitigating any processes that could cause risk, outsourcing the risk to another entity or taking the chances associated with the event occurring.
The insurance industry should understand risk better than any other business sector, as these other businesses often turn to insurers to outsource the assumed risks. Risk-averse businesses will also transfer their cyber security risks to insurance companies to minimise the exposure caused by a cyber attack.
Cyber security solutions
The number of cyber security options that are now available is increasing rapidly. Due to the large threat that cyber attacks can pose, there has been an instant requirement to develop these cyber security solutions to help keep personal information safe.
Employing AI and machine learning can significantly aid insurers in protecting against any cyber attacks, such as malware, ransomware and more advanced attacks. These new technologies are far better at analysing large amounts of data at a much quicker rate than older technologies. They are able to detect any suspicious activity that doesn’t suit the learned pattern of data behaviour. This makes them able to respond to attacks immediately.
Cyber security solutions for insurance companies should focus on four key elements. These are access controls, data behaviour, the encryption of large data volumes and the prevention of data leaks. In addition to this, all security solutions should offer real-time analysis that can easily be monitored to ensure that performance remains optimal.
How to implement a strong cyber security system
Our best piece of advice when it comes to implementing a strong cyber security system is to work with a cyber security specialist in your industry. You may have an understanding of cyber security and think you know what needs to be covered; however, an expert will have a well rounded understanding and experience in the industry to know specifically what you need. A company working in bad debt insurance will need quite different services compared to what a life insurance company might need, for example, and the smallest intricacies can make the biggest difference when it comes to your coverage.
An expert will take into account how many people work in your business, how your data is stored and the specific requirements to make sure everything is covered. Sometimes you won’t even need to pay any more to work with a cyber security specialist, as they may work for providers and so will be paid by them rather than any cost coming towards you.
Look for these key requirements
When you’re deciding on the right cyber security, you should look out for these key requirements:
- Threat protection – the right protection should be in place to prevent a cyber attack wherever possible in the first place, including all of the right threat protection technology, alerts and general threat mitigation.
- 24 hour incident response – you want to have people on hand if there is a breach that needs immediate attention, rather than just being flagged and responded to the following day.
- A crisis management plan – there needs to be a strict plan in place should anything go wrong, with very specific plans for who will act and what will happen in the event of an emergency.
- Governance – you should have security leaders and engineers who will have the technical skills to help in the event of a cyberattack.
- Ongoing monitoring – careful manual monitoring should be carried out by skilled individuals to make sure all protection that is required is in place.
- Team support – a good cyber security company will provide materials that can be sent around to all of your team about how to prevent avoidable attacks, with things like regular password checks and industry specific phishing emails and scams to be wary of or knowing how to identify when a computer has been hacked.
