CORPORATIONS must consider data as a valuable asset and strengthen data integrity to fill the security gaps in their systems, Ultimate Risk Solutions Llc. Managing Director David Piesse said.
Speaking at a forum on cyber insurance in Makati City, Piesse encourages companies to invest in greater data security. He cited reports stating that hackers’ capabilities to breach and steal data have been improving by 300 percent each year, while companies’ cyber-security improvement rate stands at just 20 percent.
According to Piesse, this increasingly worrisome scenario is due to the lack of integrity in most systems, networks, processes and data.
“Ninety-five percent of the cyber-security budget goes to antivirus and encryption, and the other 5 percent goes to data integrity,” Piesse said. “Every time you put in new software for antivirus, though, you open up more hacking goals for data integrity.”
He suggested that 50 percent of this budget should be spent looking after the data.
Piesse said the other half should be allocated on the security of the information technology infrastructure.
Reportedly, about 2.5 billion data across the globe were exposed due to data breach in the past five years, with nearly 800 incidents in 2015 alone, according to Piesse. The Philippines, on the other hand, recorded an estimated number of 1,200 cybercrimes from 2013 to 2015.
Munich Re chief Underwriting Officer Thomas Peter, however, said cyber exposures grow with the evolution of technology, thus, cyber insurance will progress along with these factors.
“Cyber insurance won’t be a static product. It has to develop with the technology, the companies and the insurance clients,” Peter said. In addition, Munich Re Casualty Underwriter Wan Shahrezal stated that alongside market movement, heightened government reinforcement of data-protection and privacy laws will largely impact the insurance-policy enhancements as this is among the determinants of growth in the insurance industry.