Executive Summary
The Association of Kenya Insurance is as a consultative and advisory body for the insurance industry registered under the Societies Act Cap 108 of the law of Kenya. AKI members are mostly the Insurance Companies in Kenya.
AKI has released its 2017 Annual Report that gives the overview of the economic performance of the insurance industry in Kenya. As with other annual reports, our concern will be focusing on technology and its threats. The Cyber Insurance, which is the insurance that covers the business from cybercrime and data breaches grew due to the increased digitization and automation being experienced in different industries.
However, the technological innovation that is expected to disrupt the industry includes; Peer to Peer (P2P) Insurance, On Demand Insurance (ODI), Customer’s Expectations, and InsureTech.
The Implementation of the General Data Protection Requirements (GDPR) passed in the European Union also helped the industry in catalyzing cyber risk management
Global Technology Trends in insurance.
1. Big Data
Big Data which refers to the ever-increasing amount of digital information being generated and stored as one of the insurance trends in the year 2017, it propelled marketing within the insurance industry through gaining the complete understanding of the customers by analyzing the available data. However, it poses a unique set of challenges including fraud and Cyber Risks.
2. Digital Labor
Digitization of workforce in the Insurance sector has enabled it to not only cut costs but it has also unlocked productivity, improve organizational agility and enhance customer responsiveness, enabling the sector to compete with startup rivals.
3. Cyber Risk and Cyber Risk Insurance
In 2017, the digital transformation brought significant opportunities including increased efficiency and convenience. However, there was an increased digital security risk as private information used in digital platforms was more prone to cyber attacks and hacking.
For example, the Wannacry ransomware, which targeted Microsoft’s Windows Operating System affected 150 countries including Kenya. This resulted to loss of billions by various organizations.
Conducting cybersecurity awareness training as well as the installation of intrusion detection system and encryption of software are some of the mitigation strategies that can be leveraged by organizations to minimize the cyber risks. Moreover, organizations can transfer this risk to insurance companies.
4. InsureTech.
Insure Tech is expected to define the insurance industry in a huge way in the future, The Insures should, therefore, leverage on it by developing the innovation agenda then determine where Insure Tech sits they should also consider Insure Tech partnerships.
5. Legislative Changes
The Computer and Cybercrime Bill, 2017 was tabled in the parliament in April 2017 and was accented by the president on May 2018. The objective of this law is to enable timely and effective, prevention, detection, prohibition, response, investigation and prosecution of computer and cybercrimes. The act further provides a means for international co-operation in dealing with computer and cybercrime matters.
6. Emerging Trends
The increased use of Smartphones and enhanced social media platforms, enabled customers to access information and be in touch with service providers wherever they are. However, there should be ways of mitigating any related risks such as miscommunication and reputational risk associated with it.
Insurance websites also increased the comparison of information by customers since it was easily accessible. Moreover, the future aspect of distribution will entail real-time connection between insurance companies and the customers.
Conclusion
As technology advances, Association of Kenya insurance should emphasize the need to establish security culture within the organization and the implementation of a comprehensive computer security plan that is able to detect, identify respond and recover from cyber incidents. Stract Consulting Limited, through its initiative of conducting cybersecurity training and real-time simulation of attacks using the KNOWBE4 platform, will enable the Insurance industry to identify any intrusion targeted towards their system.
AKI should encourage its members to carry out regular system audits to identify any vulnerability in their system.
You can read the whole report here.