NTT DATA, a global digital business and IT services leader, has launched a new white paper on the insurance industry, "Enhancing Security in the era of Smart, Data-driven Insurance ", which analyses the implication of Security in today's insurance industry presents the company's recommendations based on its global approach. Below is a summary of NTT DATA's research and findings.

Increasing Evolution of the Industry

The Insurance industry is rapidly evolving and as this evolution accelerates, companies within it are increasingly urged to rely on customers' data (sensitive client information), as well as to automatize their process to increase their performance and meet the extremely demanding request from policyholders.

And that's the reason why NTT DATA wanted to highlight an overview of the insurance cybersecurity landscape across different regions and the areas of opportunity where insurers need to focus. As the Global Trusted Innovator and Advisor for insurance companies, from NTT DATA we hold a holistic approach to security and want to share our knowledge and expertise with the market.

How Deeply is Insurance Rooted in Cybersecurity?

The digital transformation that insurers are undergoing rises a lot of challenges in the cybersecurity space: the data stored, especially Personal Identifiable Information, and responding to unforeseeable events (a pandemic, climate change, third-party risks or, what we want to convey, cyberattacks).

Insurance companies must take in mind these 4 cybersecurity challenges:

• Cloud Security. As insurers move to cloud, they ought to pay attention not only to productivity, but security as well.
• Data-driven business. Most of their decisions are based on costumer's data, an asset that must be protected.
• Security Automation. Identifying automatically threats in the cyber-environments and having an automatised response.
• Digital Workplace. The increasing amount of cyberattacks (phishing, malware) that a worker from home faces.

Cybersecurity will heavily influence in the approaching regulatory pressure that insurers are and will be undergoing soon. Across the world, many governments have enacted several privacy laws to protect consumer data from diverse attacks and misuse in the business operations of insurance companies. The results of not following these laws, as one can expect, are disastrous; the insurers may be subject to civil liability, financial penalty or damage to their reputation. And all the way to the other end, while consumers are eagerly willing to hand in some of their personal information as to get more efficient, easy-to-use services and enhanced, digital and seamless experiences, they are still concerned on where, how and when are their sensitive data being used.

NTT DATA Insights

The Insurance Industry is rapidly growing and with this growth comes an increased amount of expectation from policyholders, potential customers, and law enforcers that will oblige companies to take serious actions in bettering their security in all senses.

This can be achieved following a set of steps that are further explored in the paper, but following we highlight some of them:

• Integration of cybersecurity into all stages of the Insurance company life.
• Securing all the data that's available via encryption.
• Establish an indent source of truth.
• Passwordless Authentication.

NTT DATA comes in to play to support insurers in five main lines of action:

• Identifying and managing business risks and ensuring compliance with security regulations.
• Improving the security of insurer's software and products through our security by Design.
• Remote Monitoring and Rapid Response.
• Offering the insurance companies Cyber Solutions.
• Providing our knowledge in cybersecurity awareness.

NTT DATA has recently supported a project for an insurance company that needed improving its security rating in compliance with the law. NTT DATA was able to help outsource the whole project and is expected to result in enormous benefits in operational security management, incident management, identity and authorization management, and so on.

Conclusions

Changes in this industry are happening constantly and very quickly and that's why Insurance companies must adapt to these conditions to stay on top. One of the keys to secure this is to be prepared, have a plan and a protocol in case of cyberattack. Insurers needs to be aware that data privacy is playing a huge role in attracting new customers, retaining the current ones, and complying to the rules set by regulators.

NTT DATA is known for its global expertise in the insurance business, and we will accompany you in your journey of building a strategic vision that will rely on our tools, frameworks, and solutions to be the leader in this difficult and evolving market.

Download the white paper here.

About NTT DATA

NTT DATA – a part of NTT Group – is a trusted global innovator of IT and business services headquartered in Tokyo. We help clients transform through consulting, industry solutions, business process services, IT modernization and managed services. NTT DATA enables clients, as well as society, to move confidently into the digital future. We are committed to our clients' long-term success and combine global reach with local client attention to serve them in over 50 countries. Visit us at nttdata.com.

Press contact:

NTT DATA Corporation
Public Relations Department
Email: pr-support@kits.nttdata.co.jp

Product and service inquiries

NTT DATA Corporation
Global Marketing Headquarters
Leonardo Uego

Masaki Maeda
Takumi Mitsuhashi
Email: global-marketing@kits.nttdata.co.jp

News Releases.

The services, prices of products and services, specifications, telephone numbers, etc. for inquiries and other information included in news releases are the data available on the day of the release. This information may be changed at any time without notice. In certain circumstances, due to various risks or unexpected occurrences, actual results may also be different from the plans or projections in news releases.