March 11, 2020
Insurance Companies and Data
In a world where data is so prevalent and sensitive, it’s important to make sure we treat our data the same way we treat everything else that’s important to us.
Insurance companies arguably hold the most amount of personal and sensitive data compared to other industries. While it’s hard to put numbers on just how data the industry has, it has been said that it may generate several Exabytes per week – that’s 1 billion Gigabytes of data!
Because of this massive volume of data, engineers have to constantly write new algorithms capable of dealing with this level of raw information. Risk management has seen the largest use of this technology.
Emerging threats and breaches, such as the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017 affected over 200,000 computers worldwide (CloudSecureTech, 2017), eating into insurance companies’ profits – thus reducing the chances that some firms can remain financially viable in the long-term.
With these threats and breaches seemingly becoming commonplace, new technologies have been developed to automatically sort through huge databases and anonymise information to avoid falling afoul to the newly implemented laws and regulations.
Due to wide-ranging reforms laid out under GDPR, these companies now have to put a large focus on protecting their customers’ data privacy, and that doesn’t just go for digital data either - The provisions of GDPR are just as applicable when it comes to paper-based records as they are for digital ones. As with digital data, companies should have strict internal procedures in place to deal with the protection of paper records of all descriptions. Inadequate long-term storage of paper documents, such as archives with unrestricted access, are a key point of vulnerability. Important documents containing personal information left on printers, desks and in waste paper baskets overnight are also a compliance risk.
For hackers, the best companies and industries to attack are those with the most consumer data, and insurance companies have arguably the largest consumer database on the planet.
By choosing Shred-it for the destruction and disposal of your documents and data, we come right to your front door and shred all of your information right in front of you, giving you some piece of mind knowing that your data isn’t just lying around, vulnerable. On top of this, we provide you with a certificate of destruction once competed, verifying your compliance with environmental and corporate social responsibility.
Insurance companies arguably hold the most amount of personal and sensitive data compared to other industries. While it’s hard to put numbers on just how data the industry has, it has been said that it may generate several Exabytes per week – that’s 1 billion Gigabytes of data!
Because of this massive volume of data, engineers have to constantly write new algorithms capable of dealing with this level of raw information. Risk management has seen the largest use of this technology.
Emerging threats and breaches, such as the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017 affected over 200,000 computers worldwide (CloudSecureTech, 2017), eating into insurance companies’ profits – thus reducing the chances that some firms can remain financially viable in the long-term.
With these threats and breaches seemingly becoming commonplace, new technologies have been developed to automatically sort through huge databases and anonymise information to avoid falling afoul to the newly implemented laws and regulations.
Due to wide-ranging reforms laid out under GDPR, these companies now have to put a large focus on protecting their customers’ data privacy, and that doesn’t just go for digital data either - The provisions of GDPR are just as applicable when it comes to paper-based records as they are for digital ones. As with digital data, companies should have strict internal procedures in place to deal with the protection of paper records of all descriptions. Inadequate long-term storage of paper documents, such as archives with unrestricted access, are a key point of vulnerability. Important documents containing personal information left on printers, desks and in waste paper baskets overnight are also a compliance risk.
For hackers, the best companies and industries to attack are those with the most consumer data, and insurance companies have arguably the largest consumer database on the planet.
By choosing Shred-it for the destruction and disposal of your documents and data, we come right to your front door and shred all of your information right in front of you, giving you some piece of mind knowing that your data isn’t just lying around, vulnerable. On top of this, we provide you with a certificate of destruction once competed, verifying your compliance with environmental and corporate social responsibility.
.jpg/_jcr_content/renditions/stericycle-306-198.jpeg)