How insurers can leverage penetration testing for more comprehensive security protections
It should go without saying that the insurance industry is intimately familiar with risk and how to manage it. After all, insurers must physically and virtually protect both their business data and their customers' data. As such, failing to understand risk and vulnerability could ultimately result in business failure. Yet this doesn’t always factor into the development of an insurer’s cybersecurity posture and processes. As a result, many may still be exposed to vulnerabilities because they failed to consider the security basics.
Going back to basics
Cybersecurity is complex and wide-ranging. Failing to consider the essentials, instead placing significantly more emphasis on the need for more modern cybersecurity technologies, can be a case of not seeing the forest for the trees for many insurers. As a result, it’s possible that the smaller fundamental things can, on occasion, be overlooked.
One of the simplest things that insurers can do is take a two-pronged approach to cybersecurity:
Put a strong focus on the latest security solutions that will safeguard customer and business data while keeping evolving cyberthreats at bay.
Proactively maintain the security basics, including regular security audits and assessments, with penetration testing.
Building a stronger foundation with regular penetration testing
While penetration testing may be considered a basic test of a business’s security posture, it’s still the industry standard and continues to be one of the most efficient ways of identifying risks and vulnerabilities in critical web-based software. Additionally, it’s one of the most revealing tests of a company’s risk mitigation policy, reactiveness, and a mark of its levels of compliance. The results of penetration testing can highlight areas of the business’s security strategy that need to be improved.
Failing to consider penetration testing on an ongoing, annual basis could leave insurers open to risk. By neglecting these basics, insurers face exposure to vulnerabilities that could have been identified and patched long before becoming major security threats. Insurers must take the time to build a strong foundation of security within their own organisation. Keeping to the basics and conducting regular penetration testing of an insurer’s system can help identify possible existing vulnerabilities, as well as any new vulnerabilities they’ve been exposed to since engaging new technology partners.
To truly test the effectiveness of their cybersecurity solutions and strategies, it’s important for insurers to conduct regular security assessments, including penetration testing, to ensure their security posture is appropriate.
Maintaining strong internal and external cybersecurity networks
It’s also important to understand that it’s not just insurers that need to conduct strong security assessments and penetration testing; organisations can also be exposed to risk by engaging with technology vendors or partners with inefficient levels of security.
These measures must be applied equally to the supply chain to help insurers reduce the potential risks they may be exposed to from suppliers and partners. Insurers should ensure their critical software vendors perform penetration tests of their own offerings at least annually, take any necessary corrective action, and share the report findings with their customers.
Failing to conduct due diligence and ensure that partners and insurtech providers maintain a similarly high level of cybersecurity can be risky for insurers. It can lead to vulnerabilities in their fundamental systems that can be exposed and exploited. It’s essential that insurers look to engage insurtech providers that have high levels of compliance and have achieved relevant accreditations, such as SOC 2 Type II, to confirm they are working with providers that maintain high levels of cybersecurity.
SOC 2 Type II in particular lets companies demonstrate the effectiveness of their security, risk, and control practices to ensure they follow best practice processes. For example, Stelvio's SOC 2 compliance report details 158 controls that we have in place as well as an independent auditor’s opinion of their suitability and effective implementation, which helps to give our customers peace of mind that they’re engaging with a software provider that considers security of the utmost importance.
Stelvio has been working as a trusted partner providing secure cloud-based insurance software solutions to Australian insurers for the past two decades through the EstImage suite of products. To learn more about how Stelvio and EstImage can help you keep pace with technology evolution and gain a competitive edge, without compromising on security, contact our specialist team today.