Essay Sample on Insurance Industry and Mobile Technology Risks

Introduction

The two major mobile threats that face online retailers in the modern economic sphere include the rise of ransom-ware and risk of daunting data. Ransom-ware is increasing in scope and spreading to other mobile devices. It denotes a type of attack in which the hackers lock up segments of an organisation's system, charging a ransom for its release (Insurance Information Institute, 2019). Ransom-ware makes it hard for the perpetrators to get caught given the fact that they do not steal credit card numbers for reaping the benefits of transacting upon them. Another threat to online retailers is daunting data which comes about due to the need to store and secure sensitive data which drives up costs for retailers (Masters et al., 2018). Multiple consumer touch-points, for instance, a mobile app or an omnichannel outreach to the POS or the beacon at the store level increase the demands and vulnerabilities of security pushing for the need to safeguard data security.

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A retailer can look for various forms of insurance to help mitigate risks from a ransomware attack including loss of data and restorative work, cover against the interruption of business, insurance for forensic work and insurance against fraud and theft. Cybersecurity insurance cover packages are designed to pay the owner of the policy for damages, costs and inconveniences incurred as a result of the listed incident. Policy for loss of data and restorative work can be obtained to cover the eventuality of data loss together with the restorative work required to bring things back to order. Policyholders can secure the cover against the interruption of business which may include the loss of business and other costs. Insurance against fraud and theft is used to cater for costs arising out of the destruction or the loss of data due to theft or other related crimes.

Although the war against hacking and fraud is one that ought to be fought on all fronts by all the relevant stakeholders involved, phone manufacturers stand the best chance and have the strongest financial muscle to fight against the menace by developing relevant technologies that help to avert the vice and do away with it altogether (Deni & Moss, 2018). App developers and retailers have a hand in the fight although their effort may be inconsequential if the computers manufactured lack the capacity for self-defence mechanism and the affinity towards superior quality applications. Users of such applications as Yahoo, Gmail, Dropbox, Facebook and Twitter need to be wary of the fact that hackers need not possess any special technical knowledge about computer applications to break into their account and steal data, money and other valuable information (Deni & Moss, 2018). Hacking encompasses a wide array of activities that sometimes entail social engineering or the ability to steal an identity.

Possession of such tactics as social engineering means that all computer application ingenuity remains susceptible to hacking. Many companies and computer applications developers use the security method that employs the passcode by text technique. Although the method is widespread, it has its weaknesses whose proper intervention can only be attained by technological innovation. The technique is referred to as the two-step authentication and requires a password which makes it a one-step authentication process. The user receives a text on his phone via SMS. The method points to the discrepancy that exists in the industry. Hacking is akin to hardware, and hence a change of software is inadequate.

References

Deni, J., & Moss, A. (2018, April 2). A User's Guide to Data Breach Insurance Coverage. Retrieved from Risk Management: www.rmmagazine.com/2018/04/02/a-users-guide-to-data-breach-insurance-coverage/

Insurance Information Institute. (2019). Do I need Business Interruption Insurance? Retrieved from Insurance Information Institute: www.iii.org/article/do-i-need-business-interruption-insurance

Masters, L., Ahmad, S., & Katherine, M. (2018, January 11). How Retailers can Protect themselves against Mobile Payments Risks. Retrieved from Internet Retailer: www.digitalcommerce360.com/2018/01/11/how-retailers-can-protect-themselves-against-mobile-payments-risks/