<legend role=”h2″><span>Threats to personal data security are growing; as a result, life insurance technology is evolving.</span>Traffk<span>CTO Jason Thomas explains why taking</span>cybersecurity<span>seriously is paramount for the survival of</span>Insurtech<span>and the consumers relying on it.</span></legend>
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Nov. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Every day there are cyberattacks, and daily we move more of our lives online where we are vulnerable to attacks. Insurtech is no stranger to these sensitivities, as was the case with insurance technology startup company BackNine, which recently had a major security breach when someone left a server unsecured. Statistics show that human error is responsible for approximately 88 percent of all data breaches.(1) By some counts, there are more than 2,200 cyberattacks per day—that equates to about one cyberattack every 39 seconds.(2) According to a 2021 IBM and Ponemon Institute study, a breach can cost a company $4.24 million, which is 10% more than what it cost in 2019.(3) “There will be more attacks and businesses have to prepare for and anticipate the future,” said Jason Thomas, Chief Technology Officer for insurance platform Traffk. “While a lot of companies think they’re safe because they don’t have web-facing applications, it actually opens them to more attacks.”
BackNine’s unsecured server exposed more than 700,000 insurance applications. That server, which was hosted through Amazon’s cloud service, was misconfigured to allow anyone access to it. Amazon storage servers are private by default, meaning someone had to manually adjust settings so that none of the data was encrypted. Essentially, a seemingly small human error left highly sensitive, personal, medical information of applicants and their families, exposed. That includes social security numbers, medications, and even driver’s license numbers.(4)
Thomas says it’s important to pay attention to data breaches at other companies in order to understand how your business might be vulnerable. Having your own proprietary software so as to not rely on an insurance partnership for security software can give your business more control over security settings. It also means being able to make quick adjustments based on how other insurance technology has been breached.
Digitization can also be used to improve at-risk insurance enrollment, but that relies …….
Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/data-privacy-risk-insurance-technology-132000719.html