On October 3rd, 2012, Nationwide Insurance announced that its servers/systems had been hacked by a yet unknown foreign source and that the personal confidential information of as many as 1.1 million customers AND non-customers may have been compromised. This may include names, social security numbers, drivers licenses, address, date of birth, martial status, and potentially even employer information.
Who are the 1.1 Million?
According to the reports, unlike many other previous hack events, the information of both customers AND non-customers were compromised. Non-customers would be any third parties seeking quotes through online systems at the time of the hack.
What is the financial impact?
These events are costly at an average cost for the forensic expenses, legal fees, notification costs, customer support and credit monitoring services totaling $222 per event. At 1.1 million potential compromises, the cost to Nationwide will be a staggering number.
A Hidden Problem
How many of its agents databases could have been compromised during this event? Is it possible that the bad guys were seeking to get into those systems as well? Time will tell on what the final impact of this event is going to be.
I Have it Covered.
If you are a Nationwide agent, where does this leave you and your agency? For that matter, the same analogy applies to any of the others carriers you use in online insurance processes. Do you have Cyber Insurance in place for an event like this? Do you have appropriate E&O coverage in place if your customer has an event like this and you have not offered the coverage?
We Got You Covered.
The good news is that we specialize in the placement of Cyber Insurance for your agency, and for any customer class you have. Get in the habit now of quoting this on every commerical isnured. This hack tells us that in Cyber liability threats, exposure comes not just from what you do, but can often also come from what your vendors and others do.
USPro
