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What are common themes among thought leadership at big insurance companies like Mass Mutual, Liberty Mutual, Aetna, and Nationwide, specifically when talking about technology and mobile security?
Hello! Many thanks for your question about thought leadership in insurance companies. I've discovered that many insurance companies are wary of working with 3rd parties, but you'll find further information below:
INTRODUCTION
Insurance companies are currently experiencing a period of rapid change; the Internet of Things, driverless cars, increased use of mobile technology, and the speed with which technologies change, are all altering the way insurance companies must operate.
METHODOLOGY
I looked closely at the websites of the insurance companies mentioned, to get a general feel for their outlook. I took time to read their annual reports and then examined specialist cyber security websites to understand how the industry had been treated by the leaders of the insurance companies.
HACKING
Due to hacking attempts, insurance companies are becoming increasingly wary of working with 3rd parties. Sameer Sait, head of information security at Mass Mutual, said that "Firms have been outsourcing routine tech work to cheaper personnel elsewhere, but because of the sensitive, complex nature of cybersecurity, companies are forced to keep those operations in-house." Any work with 3rd parties will be closely monitored and subject to regular upgrades and testing.
Aetna allow the use of open-source software, but its development team must be active and release patches quickly. Aetna's chief information security officer, Jim Routh, says "Our whole software security program is predicated on the objective of reducing the total cost of ownership of the application portfolio," so limiting the amount of money spent on these processes is also a major factor.
Insurers have also operated independently in the past, but the increasing sophistication of hackers means that they may be compelled to pool security spending in the future in order to outwit the hackers.
95% of insurers believe they already have enough staff to cover all their cyber security needs, despite the fact that 84% of financial firms ranked cyber security as one of their top five concerns. But 86% of insurers expect their information security budgets to increase in the next three years.
NEW TECHNOLOGY
Insurers also have to learn to move more quickly as new technology is developed. If they don't, big insurance companies will lose out to smaller ones which are able to adapt and produce new products for niche markets - for example Asia Insurance's Pokemon Go Insurance.
Many insurers also talked about the importance of connecting with millennials, in order to maintain market share. Tom Stark, technical director of workers’ compensation at Nationwide Insurance, states that insurance companies are placing increasing emphasis on customer service. This means that they are willing to pay an increasing amount of money on products that will improve rates of customer satisfaction - especially among millennials who more demanding of the companies they engage with.
Nationwide and Aetna use the value-at-risk model for cyber security - dividing their data into levels according to the sensitivity of their data - spending more money protecting their highly sensitive data.
Insurers will also need to develop products to cover new situations. Driverless cars and shared ownership programmes are going to radically change the market and the Internet of Things is going to be of increasing importance. Liberty Mutual seem to be embracing this as they were the first to launch an insurance-based app for Amazon's Alexa.
MOBILE SECURITY
I couldn't find mobile security predictions from the insurance companies themselves. but configuration management, data protection, patch management, container approach and encrypted protection are thought to be the most important factors by the mobile industry.
Ransomware attacks on the valuable data stored in the cloud are becoming increasingly likely, so there will also be a focus on protecting the cloud from attack.
Cyber attacks are thought to become more diverse, so securing mobiles through a multi-cloud security strategy will be increasingly important.
CONCLUSION
Insurers are generally wary of 3rd parties, but those with strong attention to security, regular updates, and testing could be able to sell to the big insurers.
Mobile security will be increasingly important, especially protecting valuable data within the cloud.
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