Tag Archives: data

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Insurance Obvious Big Data

While giving a presentation at The Year Ahead: 2014, Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, said “insurance is the most obvious” industry “about to explode” with uses for big data. Better cost controls and more efficient delivery of services are two ways data can transform industries, he said.

At the conference hosted by Bloomberg LP, Schmidt and Dan Wagner, the head of the data analytics team for Pres. Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, discuss ways companies and government regulators can use algorithms to sort through vast amounts of information about people and markets to help them boost productivity.

The insurance industry could use data to target services to those more at risk, which could help lower the cost of healthcare. Data analytics is one of the big trends that you will see over the next few years within the insurance industry. The better the industry can understand risk and claims activity, the more targeted products and services can be.

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Agency Computer System Security Deters Thieves

I received this story from a college student and wanted to pass it along.

“A week ago, an insurance agency office was burglarized and it appears that the burglars were looking only for personal data. They stole computer monitors, but left the CPUs and hard drives. But in the neighboring attorney’s office, they stole the computers. Reason: The lawyers had not secured their data but the agency had a super tight security system… difficult passwords, high-end encryption, the works. Their security guy said that the burglars tried to get into the system, but failed on every attempt because of the security system.

“The moral of the story: The agency dodged the bullet. They didn’t lose any client data, so they don’t have the time and expense (and loss of reputation) involved in telling their clients of a breach. The lawyers, on the other hand, are in the soup.

“It’s scary to think that people are now breaking in to only steal data. Equally scary to think that there are hundreds of agency computers, servers, flash drives, and laptops out there with little or no security. I know it’s been written about, but agents need to be reminded of the serious penalties for not dealing correctly with a data loss (in Michigan, it’s up to $750,000). Also, since this is a problem for our customers as well as agencies, we need to be selling insurance to protect against the consequences.”