Although cyber insurance has been around for a few years now, since it is still a fairly new concept and the industry is expected to grow exponentially in the near future, companies may have questions. Lynda A. Bennett, Chair of Insurance Coverage Practice at the law firm of Lowenstein Sandler, LLP, in Roseland, New Jersey, spoke with Security about the ins and outs of cyber insurance. As an attorney specializing in these types of claims, Bennett represents enterprises, not insurers.
Though biometric analytics have been around for a few years now, Apple and Samsung’s recent introduction of fingerprint readers to their newest mobile devices prove that biometric security systems are going to be more and more commonplace in the public sector. The research organization Goode Intelligence estimates that biometric authentication will be on most mobile devices by the end of 2015 and that by 2019, it will be used by 5.5 billion people worldwide. Familiarity with biometric analytics means ease of use for employees and consumers alike.
Security executives in property management secure commercial buildings in a variety of ways, depending on location, risk, whether the building is public, private or semi-public, what sort of asset is being protected, hours of operation, and the like. Protecting buildings from risks such as theft, loitering, vandalism, rioting and workplace violence comes with a variety of unique challenges and can take a lot of forethought, planning and creativity.
After yet more school shootings began making the news, the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois decided to completely overhaul its virtually nonexistent lobby security a year and a half ago. “(The shootings) made us realize we needed to put something in place to secure us a little bit more. We may be looked at as a target because we are in an old high school building, and our property is combined with the (new) high school next door to us,” says Patrick Ketchum, Director of the Office for Insurance and Benefits at the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.
Cyber breaches knows no boundaries and doesn’t discriminate based on business size. For example, a study by the National Cyber Security Alliance shows that even though 66 percent of the small businesses surveyed relied on the Internet on a daily basis and 69 percent handled sensitive data, only 23 percent had a written policy and procedure Internet security guide for their employees. Only 37 percent provided Internet safety training to their employees, and only 50 percent had a cybersecurity plan to keep their business secure.
Out of sheer necessity, sports security has been evolving rapidly since the Boston Marathon bombing, and most sports security professionals refer to that particular event as a turning point. Metal detectors have become commonplace in major league stadiums, new security policies have been formed, and even tailgating was banned at this year’s Super Bowl.
Imagine the day when you can check-in and choose your hotel room using your mobile phone. You may soon be able to do that at Hilton hotels, as the chain says it will offer digital check-in and room selection at 11 of its brands, across more than 4,000 properties.
Depending on the environment you’re in, physical safeguards such as desks, railings and panic buttons can be helpful deterrents. “You don’t want to make it look like a prison, but at the same time, you can make minor modifications that help protect.
The Snowden leaks, the Navy Yard shooting, and recent evidence that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s primary background check contractor all have forced the federal government to look at changing the way it does background checks.
The report from June 4, 2014, stated that one USIS employee turned in more than 15,000 investigations in one month, translating to about 21 screens every hour of every day during that month, which has raised red flags.