Cyberattacks pose a serious threat to the insurance industry. Time and again, cybercriminals prey on insurance companies and their customers, increasingly in the form of sophisticated and targeted attacks. So how can the insurance industry protect itself against such threats? We compiled 5 top tips for insurance companies to effectively improve their data security.
There are three key factors for data security. The first is a company’s own data protection guidelines, meaning insurance companies need to define clear and ‘hard’ compliance guidelines regarding handling any and all data. Next is the technology used, which encompasses all of the company’s hardware and software. Finally, it is their employees. The employee is the one who decides if they will download an attachment, click on a link, or open a file they have been sent. It is precisely these situations where most security breaches take place, so cybercriminals use them as the gateway for their activities. Since users can be rather easily manipulated or misled, attacks via malicious emails are still very prevalent.
The insurance industry ranks among the industries most affected my malicious emails.
Since the insurance industry loses billions every year due to cyberattacks, it is paramount for the industry to protect their data.
Here are our 5 tips for improving your data security:
- Train your employees! Explain the significance and the value that data carries today and create an awareness of the security threats and potential attacks that are out there. Using a one-size-fits-all approach, however, would be misguided: Training ought to be designed according to the employees’ exposure to the respective security threats. It is also important to establish a culture in which your employees will swiftly report suspicious cases – this way, the security threats your enterprise encounters can be prevented far more effectively.
- Create tailor-made compliance guidelines. This means to define clear and concrete data protection guidelines for your company that appropriately reflect the requirements your daily work presents.
- Only grant local administrative rights when absolutely necessary. If a cyberattack against you has been successful, for instance by means of spearfishing, it makes a significant difference for containment if infected computers can’t (easily) spread malware to other devices in the network.
- Provide a secure communication channel that can also be used by external users to initiate contact with you, for example via a safe link for insurance claims that allows for data to be sent directly to the respective insurance department ad hoc and at any time.
- Set up effective protection from spam. Today, spam is no longer the most sophisticated form of attack. Its success, however, lies in its large volume. Among the many recipients there is typically at least one who becomes the unsuspecting victim – jeopardising the entire company’s data security.
Cryptshare offers insurance companies some key benefits for their data security regarding the three factors discussed here. With Cryptshare, insurance companies can configure policies to best fit their needs: the administrator has the option to configure multiple policy settings or leave them open for the respective users to determine on their own. Cryptshare offers a direct communication channel from the sender via the Cryptshare Server to the recipient. This way, third parties are excluded in transit. Since it is bidirectional, Cryptshare can be used ad hoc by external users – without the need for user accounts or certificates and with no additional license fees. The one-time-only verification for Cryptshare’s initial use ensures that the sender is in fact the authorised user of the email address that is being used. Robots and scripts are effectively filtered out in advance, successfully combatting the spread of spam. And last, but certainly not least, Cryptshare is popular with millions of users because of its ease of use. If you can send an email, you can use Cryptshare.
Find out how Cryptshare helps insurance companies worldwide to protect their data security.
