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Ethical consumerism connects insurance companies and their clients to a new range of emerging risks not the least of which are hacktivists. The world has moved on since the days when animal rights activists employed crude death threats as one manifestation of angry activism.
In my last blog I outlined the first of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) framework functions: Identify, which is described by NIST as follows – “Develop the organizational understanding to manage cybersecurity risk to systems, assets, data, and capabilities.”
U.S. President Obama issued Executive Order 13636, “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity,” on February 12, 2013. In enacting this policy, the Executive Order calls for the development of a voluntary risk-based Cybersecurity Framework – a set of industry standards and best practices to help organizations manage cybersecurity risks.
As data is used in new and different ways, previously unknown or unrecognised quality issues may become apparent. It is important that as a minimum the data quality is measured and that lower quality data is identified. It is likely that business process improvement or data improvement projects will be required to mitigate these challenges.
Data programmes have to ensure that they take into consideration the Legal and Regulatory Requirements. Regulation is increasingly focused around data; your change programme needs to take these factors into consideration. Factors such as: • Data quality • Data retention • Legality, or business desire to transport data and host data in certain regions • Requirements for e-discovery searches
Big Data is definitely a 21st Century buzzword, and as is the case with buzzwords they are used and misused in equal amounts. Wikipedia defines Big Data as: “an all-encompassing term for any collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand data management tools or traditional data processing applications”. So depending on the scale of your data, and its complexity, you’re likely to be able to regard what we’re talking about as big data or certainly your organization’s path to understanding it. So what does that path look like?
The insurance sector manages a mountain of data. Since the earliest beginnings of insurance, data has been recognized as a vital and valuable asset. Insurance companies have recognized the benefits offered by computing often becoming early adopters of technology.
On December 15, 2015, the European Parliament and the European Council agreed the EU Data Protection Reform, promising to make Europe fit for the digital age, but what is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), what is its scope, and what do organisations need to do to comply with this new regulation.
London, 2nd June 2016 - Independent reviews suggest that 60-70% of major change programmes fail by their own standards, which is a major concern for insurance leaders operating in a volatile risk landscape that is increasingly disrupted by new drivers of change.
In the week that U.S. authorities acknowledged a data breach affecting the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security - but downplayed its severity – it just goes to show that even the most security conscious organisations are lacking in cyber smarts. A hacker, or hacking group, published via Twitter what they said were records of 9,000 DHS employees.
It was fascinating to read the results of Xchanging plc’s survey at the end of last year, which revealed that only one-third of insurers in the London Market believe their firm could withstand a major cyber-attack, and almost half felt they were underprepared, according to a survey conducted by the company.
I attended the AIMA Guide to Sound Practices for Operational Risk event in London last Thursday, the live audience polls during the course of the event that I think provide interesting insights into what keeps Hedge Fund manager up at night from an Operational Risk perspective.
Everybody is talking about data. Where to store it, how best to capture it and in particular how to leverage it, for better market performance and future growth both in Bermuda and overseas. Executive management are hungry to be correctly informed. They need to make eyes-open decisions, based on facts, knowing that if they decide to lead their respective company down a particular path, then it will be the right one. The benefits of a data-led management approach can touch every strategic and operational aspect of a company. Let’s give it an acronym: DLM as we will call it enables objective decision making — the opportunity to collaborate on decision making and an increased ability to set and manage stakeholder expectations with greater accuracy.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling on the 6th October has spawned ample discussion and written copy. Little of this content has contained any practical advice or potential solutions to consider. Even worse, some of the well intentioned content we have reviewed contains inaccurate information and further promote some misconceptions that might lead readers toward the wrong conclusions. Fifth Step's white paper provides a short, but necessary, background to the issue, debunks three (3) common misconceptions, then aims to provide some practical advice and solutions to consider that can minimize the potential disruption to the normal business activities of multinational firms with significant Trans- Atlantic operations.
A neighbour recently turned up on my doorstep close to tears. In her shaken state it was clear that something serious had happened.