While insurers may help their clients prepare for the unexpected, they are not all doing the same when it comes to their own cyber risk strategies.
The insurance industry is built on preparing clients for the worst-case scenario. However, cyber risk is one area where insurers don’t always practise what they preach, leaving them exposed to potential financial and reputational damage.
The challenge is that there is no such thing as a ‘perfect’ security strategy, because risk is a factor of a changing threat landscape and varying vulnerabilities in your organisation. Plus, while it may be tempting to do so, you can’t think about cybersecurity exclusively in terms of technology. While it’s true that technology is a central tenet of a successful approach, you also have to take into account human factors and risk management processes you have in place.
Today, just like organisations in other sectors, many insurers rely on numerous different systems, both internal and external. They may also work with a complex web of external suppliers and partners, and run systems that are open to customers and other third parties. In light of regulations such as the GDPR, it is vital to protect data against accidental or deliberate breaches. Even more important, core business systems must be kept running securely at all times – very few organisations today can tolerate more than a few minutes of downtime during normal working hours.
Enter RiskXchange
RiskXchange is the worldwide standard for enterprise and third-party risk score ratings and cyber risk analysis.
By combining monitoring and forensics, collected assessments, cognitive AI reasoning and consistent correlation, RiskXchange provides a 360-degree view of cyber risk.
The solution enables organisations to understand their risk of suffering a security breach, uncovering weaknesses such as out-of-date software or unprotected data. By addressing these vulnerabilities, enterprises have an opportunity to dramatically improve their protection against external threats.
Turning the spotlight on the UK insurance industry
The Cyber Risk Assessment of the UK insurance industry report offers a simple, transparent benchmark that insurers can use to understand how prepared their industry is to safeguard customer data from cybersecurity threats.
The report is intended to inform organisations’ risk management plans, providing insight into how they can build on their current cybersecurity strategies to dramatically decrease the risk of breaches. To create the report, we sampled over 150 companies distributed across brokers, MGAs/coverholders and carriers, and carried out a RiskXchange Risk Rating on them.
To learn about the results and our seven recommendations to improve security posture and better protect sensitive data, read ‘RiskXchange’s assessment of the UK insurance industry’ today. It could be the first step in ensuring that you’re prepared for anything that cyber criminals might throw your way.
