Kapnick Insurance Group presented its first client seminar in our new auditorium on December 12^th,2011. The new room outfitted with dual whiteboards with touch technology, a raised podium and seating for up to 80 participants was a perfect forum for the Data Security Seminar I moderated. Thirty-five attendees seemed to enjoy hearing from 5 prominent speakers on a variety of pertinent topics relevant to any business that does not want sensitive information shared with the world.

NEW PERILS IN A CONNECTED WORLD by Stew Nelson

New Perils in a Connected World - by Stew Nelson

New Perils in a Connected World - by Stew Nelson

New Perils in a Connected World – by Stew Nelson

With all the data breaches in the news lately, it is becoming obvious that we are not doing a very good job of securing our data. No doubt there, are some clever hackers out there are smart enough to penetrate even DOD and bank firewalls but there are still many breaches we read about that could easily have been prevented with common sense and a few simple tips. Here are three easily implemented tips for you to consider:

New Perils in a Connected World – by Stew Nelson

The European Union, EU, has had rules in place regarding storing and securing Personal Information since 2002. These rules required breaches to be reported to National Regulators and the individuals affected by the data breach. Now however after the recent spate of breaches, the European Digital Agenda Commissioner Neely Kroes announced that she was starting a public commentary to see if more regulation was required. Last May regulators launched a trial balloon by proposing that EU regulations should be extended to online banking and shopping, social media and even online games. As a side bar, Ms. Kroes singled out Sony for alleged lapse after their recent “gapping hole” was found in their firewall!

New Perils in a Connected World – by Stew Nelson

A recent New York Times editorial “The Cloud Darkens” posited that recent well publicized data breaches by hackers has caused some corporate technology professional to “get cold feet” and suggest IT managers question the wisdom of moving sensitive information to the cloud where it exposes “them to devastating identity theft and fraud.” I would hope that corporations would have the exact opposite reaction to the hackings and accelerate their migration to the cloud so that technology professionals at the data centers can help secure their data in virtual servers using state of the art encryption and firewalls. No business is safe from hackers as Apple learned this weekend and most high profile attacks have not even involved true Cloud Computing.

New Perils in a Connected World - by Stew Nelson

When it comes to Cyber Liability policies it is very important to understand that one size does not fit all! In the past few years some comprehensive cyber liability policies have come to the marketplace so for most businesses a carefully chosen policy will be just fine. However, if you are hosting other business’ websites, heavily data dependent and or storing sensitive Personal Identification Information or health information on your servers it is unlikely that one cyber policy will get the job done for you. I recommend that you get in touch with an insurance agent that understands Cyber Risks. That said, there are some important things that you should look for in a policy and this article will focus on highlighting some of the more important policy provisions to look for. I will leave it up to you and your agent to decide what provisions are most important to you and meet your budget.

Key policy provisions in Cyber Liability polices