Irene Kendall, co-founder and director of document management software business Technosoft Solutions, has seen several brokers fall victim to cyber-attacks, including one particularly severe case.
Irene Kendall, co-founder and director of document management software business Technosoft Solutions, has seen several brokers fall victim to cyber-attacks, including one particularly severe case. She explains why brokers need to protect their businesses.
Cyber risk is one of the hottest topics in the insurance industry at the moment. Understandably, the majority of the discussion is around helping clients and providing insurance products to help mitigate the impact of these cyber threats.
However, through our work with hundreds of insurance brokers in Australia and New Zealand, we have found an increasing number have themselves been subject to a cyber-attack. In the most severe case, one broker had its entire client data corrupted
and rendered inaccessible.
The new Privacy Laws add an increased need for brokers to keep their records safe and secure. Ensuring they have effective back-ups and restore capabilities is a must have for every business.
We know dozens of brokers who have now had some kind of cyber-attack. Fortunately, most do not cause a major disruption due to the back-ups in place and data protection offered by systems.
We can only see this kind of challenge increasing with attacks becoming more widespread and sophisticated. Document management can be a business saviour as well as a valuable tool because it provides a comprehensive disaster recovery solution. Intermediaries cannot afford to put their heads in the sand on this one.
Irene Kendall is co-founder and director of Technosoft Solutions. Its primary product is document management system Officetech, which is used by over 250 insurance intermediaries in Australia every day.
