Blog

By Gretchen Clarke

Not unlike other vertical market business entities, insurance companies face a growing set of regulations and guidelines for protecting their data.

With an ever-evolving IT threat landscape, hacker attacks and network intrusions, protecting sensitive customer information is a growing concern for the insurance industry.  What’s more, the insurance industry may face security concerns from both sides of the table – serving the security needs of the insurers and serving the security needs of the insured.  To help illustrate, take a look at the list of sensitive information needed in order to purchase insurance:

While this information is necessary for those wanting to be insured, have you ever wondered where your information goes?  Where it’s stored?  Is it scanned into a shared file on a network or did you complete it online?  Is it emailed to the corporate office?

In the last few years, nine states have added regulations mandating that insurance companies archive and encrypt any emails containing personal/private data.  These states include:  California, Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia, while many other states are adopting legislation to follow suit.

It’s not just about being compliant with federal and state laws.  It’s also about building customer trust.  By enhancing your service offering with best-in-breed security solutions, you’re telling customers that their privacy matters and that you’re taking the necessary steps to keep sensitive information secure.

To those companies who have traded in photocopies for online documents and to consumers who are concerned about protecting their personal/private data, we encourage you to take a look at your security footprint today.  And, if you have any questions along the way, we are here to help.

To learn more about AppRiver’s  cloud-based email encryption and email archiving & compliance solutions, please contact sales@appriver.com.  (And make sure to ask about our current promotions on compliance-ready solutions!)