News Items Archive
Friday, November 10th, 2023Key Elements of Effective Crisis Response
Whether from technical failures, natural disasters, civil unrest or many other causes, crises can strike at any time with little warning. To minimize disruptions and maintain organizational resilience when the worst happens, it is crucial to prepare ahead of time by developing robust and thoroughly rehearsed crisis management plans. Proper training, clear communication protocols, people accounting procedures, and nimble utilization of remote work and alternate sites will enable organizations to rapidly adapt and respond when faced with sudden threats of any type.
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Friday, November 10th, 2023
The Business Case for ESG Risk Assessment
Risk and business continuity professionals undertake a serious responsibility ensuring businesses stay up and running in the event of innumerable internal and external disasters that could disrupt operations. To fulfill their responsibility to stakeholders, shareholders and customers, these professionals must carefully and comprehensively evaluate the full range of risks facing their businesses. To date, business continuity planning has codified approaches to navigating all kinds of disruptions, from product failures to supply chain breakdowns to economic volatility. But the risk environment is ever changing, and business continuity professionals should increase focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks.
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Friday, November 10th, 2023
Five Questions Every Risk Manager Should Ask Before Obtaining a Surety Bond
It is a request many risk professionals dread hearing: "We need a surety bond." Insurance professionals on the receiving end of this request know the drill: The client is entering into a business arrangement and the negotiations are winding down. Everything is coming together until the end when it comes to the agent's attention that a surety bond is needed to complete the deal and they are unsure how to proceed.
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Thursday, February 02nd, 2023
New NAAIA Report Focuses on Next Steps for DEI in the Insurance Industry
As Black History Month kicks off, February presents a great opportunity to not only celebrate the history and accomplishments of African Americans, but also to meaningfully assess and advance diversity, equity and inclusion measures with the goal of ensuring lasting change rather than lip service. To that end, the National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA) recently updated its research on its members’ experiences and challenges in the insurance industry, releasing the new study The Next Steps on the Journey: Has Anything Changed? The new research updates NAAIA’s 2018 report The Journey of African American Insurance Professionals, evaluating what progress has or has not been made over the past five years, particularly given the increasing focus on DEI programs and, specifically, many companies’ discussions of DEI efforts after the murder of George Floyd brought the Black Lives Matter movement to the fore.
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Tuesday, December 20th, 2022
Identifying and Preventing Provider Fraud in Workers Comp Cases
Claimant fraud and premium fraud are two of the most well-known types of workers compensation fraud. In these cases, a worker may intentionally fake an injury (claimant fraud) or a business owner may misrepresent their employee headcount or incorrectly classify employees to obtain lower insurance premiums. Now, a lesser-known type is occurring with greater frequency: provider fraud.
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Friday, March 04th, 2022
Cyberrisk Management Tips for Businesses Amid the Russia-Ukraine War
A wide range of risks are trickling down from Russia’s assault on Ukraine, from sanctions compliance to supply chain disruption to business interruption. Cyberrisk has also drawn considerable concern and the threat landscape continues to evolve rapidly, though the details of increased cyberattack activity are not yet fully known and may be largely unfolding below the surface right now. Attacks attributed to Russia have been launched against a range of targets in Ukraine, including new destructive malware campaigns, targeted information-gathering against a range of civilian and government targets, and attacks on critical infrastructure.
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Thursday, February 03rd, 2022
A TechRisk/RiskTech Reading List from Risk Management Magazine
Last week, the RIMS TechRisk/RiskTech virtual event featured two days of education content on some of the biggest challenges and opportunities in modern risk management, focusing extensively on cyberrisk as well as risktech--the latest technology tools and techniques for managing risk. As the presentations made clear, technology introduces some of the greatest risks to organizations, but also some of the most promising innovations to introduce or enhance risk management.
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Wednesday, January 05th, 2022
What Employers Need to Know About Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
In an effort to combat the COVID-19 virus and its subsequent variants, the Biden administration has instituted three important mandates that employers should be aware of as they may impact their business. First, the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), issued by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), requires that all employers with 100+ employees mandate vaccination or weekly testing. The second mandate involves federal workers and contractors and requires them to obtain a vaccination without any option for weekly testing. The final mandate was issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and requires vaccination of all healthcare workers at CMS-covered facilities.
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Friday, December 17th, 2021
Tornadoes Devastate Midwest and Southern States
Last week, a series of tornadoes ripped across the Midwest and Southern United States, killing dozens and crippling infrastructure in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee. While Karen Clark & Company has estimated that the insured loss from the tornado outbreak will be about $3 billion, and credit rating agency Fitch predicted that losses would total $5 billion, Dr. Joel N. Myers, AccuWeather founder and CEO, estimated that the tornadoes are expected to cost about $18 billion in total damage and economic loss. Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications at The Insurance Information Institute, said, "Based on preliminary assessments of the extensive property damage we are seeing across multiple states, this weekend's tornado outbreak has the potential to be the costliest on record in the U.S."
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Friday, December 03rd, 2021
RIMS Risk Forum India 2021: Building Resilience As COVID, Cyberrisk Top Business Risks
An increasingly key theme year over year, resilience is at the root of the latest Excellence in Risk Management India report from Marsh and RIMS--and the RIMS Risk Forum India 2021 virtual event, where the report was officially released today. In the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, risk professionals in India reported acute short- and long-term concerns about the interconnected risks of COVID-19 cases, global economic recession, and surging cyberrisks amid shifts in work arrangements.
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Monday, November 15th, 2021
RIMS ERM Conference 2021: IRS Receives Global Enterprise Risk Management Award of Distinction
On Friday, RIMS President Ellen Dunkin presented the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with the 2021 Global Enterprise Risk Management Award of Distinction at the Society's ERM Conference in New York City. The honor recognized the IRS's outstanding achievements that allow it to anticipate emerging risks and establish the appropriate culture, processes and structures to strengthen strategic decision-making.
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Monday, November 08th, 2021
Should You Revisit Insured Property Value Estimates?
One of the first steps in obtaining commercial property insurance is to determine the value of the property being insured. The reported property value will drive premium amounts and, importantly, represents the property loss exposure.
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Friday, September 24th, 2021
5 Best Practices for Effective Claims Reviews
With the cost of insurance for businesses rising across many types of coverage, staying on top of trends in the claims portfolio is more important than ever. Spotting problem areas and opportunities sooner makes it easier to develop and implement steps to reduce risk pre-loss and better control costs post-loss. For this reason, many insurers and TPAs promise to conduct claims reviews with their business customers on a regular basis, but the rigor can vary greatly. Practices that have been common historically often lack the nuance and precision that can unlock the maximum benefit for each customer's unique situation.
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Thursday, September 02nd, 2021
Court Overturns Prop 22, California’s Gig Worker Classification Law
On August 25, the Alameda County Superior Court in California declared that Proposition 22 (better known as Prop 22) violated the state's constitution, overturning it and potentially putting a portion of the state's gig work industry in peril. The controversial California ballot measure designated app-based gig workers like rideshare and food delivery drivers as independent contractors, meaning that the companies they ostensibly work for would not have to provide a minimum wage, health insurance, unemployment, sick leave or other benefits. Because the initiative was a ballot measure, the court found the law restricted the state legislature's ability to regulate compensation rules, and said the measure also illegally prevented workers from collective bargaining and unionization. However, this ruling does not mean that gig workers will automatically be considered employees, as no previous law mandated that classification.
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Tuesday, August 31st, 2021
Hurricane Risk Management: Key Considerations Before and After Storms Strike
On Sunday, August 29, Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm with winds of 150 miles per hour, making it one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the United States. Striking on the same date that Hurricane Katrina devastated the region 16 years ago, Ida caused significant wind damage, storm surge and flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi and has left 1 million homes and businesses without power, including the entire city of New Orleans. Ida has now weakened to a tropical storm and will continue to cut through the south before making its way across much of the East Coast, bringing significant risks of wind, rain and inland flooding throughout this week.
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Tuesday, June 29th, 2021
Travel Risk Management for LGBTQ+ Employees
LGBTQ+ travelers can face unique challenges when traveling abroad--many countries do not legally recognize same-sex marriage and more than 70 countries consider consensual LGBTQ+ relationships a crime. If an employee travels on business to a country where their sexual orientation or expression of gender identity is criminalized, an extra layer of complexity is added to duty of care responsibilities. Corporate risk managers need to consider how to best protect employees in a way that doesn't make them feel singled out, working with them to stay safe and respect local laws without compromising their own values.
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Monday, June 14th, 2021
How to Conduct Better Third-Party Risk Assessments
Today's enterprises operate in a complex digital ecosystem that connects customers, vendors and partners and through which data is shared and transactions are processed. Because much of this is done through outsourcing of systems and services to third parties, many enterprises have dramatically increased the scale and complexity of their risk surface.
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Tuesday, June 08th, 2021
Automating Risk Functions for Greater Value Creation
Despite recent volatility, more than 60% of risk executives surveyed in a recent PwC US Pulse Survey were optimistic about the global economy, as well as the state of the pandemic recovery. This optimism could stem from a greater alignment between risk functions and the business. Fifty percent of risk management executives reported interacting more with the C-suite, and 42% said they interact more with the board level. Nearly half of respondents said that risk functions and capabilities are now embedded in the business operations that are driving transformations.
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Thursday, May 20th, 2021
Employee Engagement is Key in COVID-19 Recovery
Businesses and their employees have had to rapidly adjust to the shutdowns and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and their ability to adapt and pivot will continue to be critical as organizations start to recover from the impacts of the crisis.
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Friday, May 07th, 2021
Building Effective IT Disaster Recovery Plans
No matter how well-managed IT infrastructure is, there is always the risk that a tiny hiccup could ultimately turn into a real emergency. Given the increasing reliance on technology tools and access to business-critical data to continue operations, every business should have an effective IT disaster recovery plan in place to minimize disruption when disaster strikes. Risk professionals must consider and plan for this situation with regular testing and run-throughs to ensure that all team members understand the recovery plan and know their responsibilities.
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Thursday, April 29th, 2021
COVID-19 Vaccines: Should You Mandate, Motivate or Educate Employees?
For the past year, employers have grappled with unprecedented workplace safety and human resources challenges, forced to address safety measures that were unfamiliar for many industries. Employees have become accustomed to daily health screening and masks, and human resources has added COVID safety training and enforcement to its job duties. As vaccines are becoming more prevalent, employers have to now decide whether they should vaccinate their workforces. Making this decision can seem daunting and the applicable employment laws can seem overwhelming. However, there are some baseline considerations that may help.
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Wednesday, April 21st, 2021
8 Steps to Create Strong Disaster Management Plans
A core responsibility of any risk professional is planning for any possible disasters your business might face. These could be man-made, such as a data breach or accidents involving machinery, or natural, like a tornado or flood.
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Thursday, April 08th, 2021
Six Considerations Impacting Strategic Regulatory Change Management
Regulatory change management (RCM) is one of the most important risk and compliance related domains in 2021, thanks to two key drivers. First, the shift from Republican deregulation to Democratic control and an expected uptick in regulatory requirements. Second, similar to the 2008 crash, the pandemic-induced economy and focus on Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans caused many banks to relax their regulatory exams and requirements, while regulators gave companies extra runway for transitioning processes and policies for remote/work-from-home models.
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Monday, April 05th, 2021
RIMS LIVE 2021 Keynote Duncan Wardle on Out-Of-This-World Innovation
In two weeks, RIMS LIVE 2021 will officially kick off on April 19 with a keynote from Duncan Wardle. As head of innovation and creativity at Disney, Wardle led the team that helped foster innovation at Imagineering, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, and Disney Parks, creating magical new storylines and experiences for global consumers. As an innovation speaker and creativity consultant, Wardle now aims to help embed a culture of innovation into every company's DNA through his approach to design thinking.
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Tuesday, March 30th, 2021
Data Backup Strategy Tips for World Backup Day
As tomorrow's World Backup Day should remind us all, there is one risk mitigation measure every company should have in place and regularly reevaluate: a data backup strategy. A data backup is an archive or copy of a company's information, sensitive or otherwise, and presents a critical part of any enterprise's disaster recovery plan, especially in the event of a data loss. Data loss can come in many forms, including physical theft, hard drive failures, simple human mistakes, and ransomware attacks. Given the range of potential risk scenarios, risk professionals and business leaders assess their backup strategy as part of all disaster preparation and response plans.
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Wednesday, March 03rd, 2021
Texas Cold Crisis: Insurance Options for Severe Weather Disruption
On February 15, a massive and unseasonal storm with frigid temperatures spiked the demand for power and outpaced the supply, severing power to 26 million Texans. Unpredictable weather patterns present risks for business owners, but also create an opportunity to improve their risk mitigation strategies to address future uncertainties.
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Friday, February 12th, 2021
Human Trafficking and Supply Chains: Q&A with Tim Nelson of the Slave-Free Alliance
The International Labour Organization estimates that 25 million people are subject to human trafficking around the world, with children comprising one of every four victims. In many cases, the victims are used and transported by their traffickers in supply chains.
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Wednesday, February 03rd, 2021
How to Prepare Now for Your Next Crisis Post-COVID
As business leaders remain hyper-focused on navigating through the pandemic, few have sufficiently considered how to prepare for the next major crisis. There are many steps leaders can take, some of which include reassessing their risk management plans, constructing cohesive frameworks that proactively identify potential gaps, and identifying protocols and procedures to fill those gaps in preparation for future crises, no matter how big or small.
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Monday, February 01st, 2021
Strengthening Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts
Improving diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace seemingly remains an elusive goal for many companies. This persists even as many business leaders have stepped up to demonstrate that they value diversity and inclusion by making public commitments and dedicating time and money to training and development for their teams.
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Monday, January 25th, 2021
Responding to Litigation Hold Notices
The purpose of a litigation hold is to preserve relevant information when an organization reasonably believes this information can lead to an investigation or litigation. The information to be preserved can be documents, equipment and/or electronic information or materials that may be relevant to a lawsuit or an investigation, depending on your industry. If relevant documents or information are lost, altered or destroyed, the company could suffer serious legal consequences.
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Wednesday, December 30th, 2020
How to Make the Most Out of 2021’s Virtual Conferences for Rising Risk Professionals and Employers
Amid a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, people around the world are going back into lockdowns or rolling back phased reopenings, and it appears remote work arrangements and virtual events will continue to be the norm for many. Throughout the pandemic and now, moving into 2021, these shifts have prompted serious consideration about what it means to connect at work and how to build and maintain relationships in your professional network without seeing people in person.
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Thursday, December 17th, 2020
PAID Act Becomes Law, Fixing Medicare Secondary Payer Flaw
On December 11, the Provide Accurate Information Directly (PAID) Act was signed into law as a part of the funding bill to keep the government running. A top priority of RIMS Advocacy since it was introduced in 2019, the PAID Act will fix a current flaw in Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) compliance. Specifically, the PAID Act amends 42 U.S.C. § 1395y(b)(8)(G) to require that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expand its Section 111 Query Process to identify whether a claimant is currently entitled to, or during the preceding 3-year period has been entitled to, Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) and/or Medicare Part D (prescription drug) benefits. If so, CMS is then required to provide the names and addresses of any such Medicare plans through the Section 111 Query Process. Included in the bill is a one-year implementation provision that requires the fix to go live by December 11, 2021.
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Monday, November 30th, 2020
Three Ways to Reduce Insider Threat Risks During COVID-19
Months into the pandemic, organizations have recovered from the initial emergency of trying to ensure that their employees could safely work from home. They now realize that this remote reality will be extended--and they need to determine if they have the right cybersecurity protections in place. Most importantly, they need to stop insider threats, which account for more than 30% of all data breaches.
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Friday, November 13th, 2020
How Businesses Can Become More Eco-Responsible
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 75% of the U.S. waste stream is recyclable, yet only about 30% of it is recycled. Even though individuals can be more diligent in their daily lives, businesses can make a larger difference at a greater scale, while setting a precedent for people within their company. This weekend's America Recycles Day, celebrated on November 15, is a great opportunity to take action.
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Thursday, November 05th, 2020
Applying the Pareto Principle for Personal and Professional Success
Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist born in 1848, was apparently also a keen gardener, and like all keen gardeners, Vilfredo knew not all plants are created equal. Some of them produced a great crop of abundance, and some of them had very little to offer. In fact, legend has it that Vilfredo noticed that 20% of his pea plants were producing 80% of the healthy pea produce.
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Thursday, October 22nd, 2020
Only 18% of IT Pros Confident in Current Password Risk Management
Many are having trouble maintaining the security of their employees' log-in information, resulting in serious risks to their networks and private information. According to a recent LastPass and VansonBourne survey of 750 IT and security professionals in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore, only 18% feel their company's current access security is "fully secure and does not require improvement." Risk management professionals have a significant role to play in determining how their organizations handle these risks and protect their data.
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Tuesday, October 13th, 2020
Work-From-Home Risks: The Toll of Bad Ergonomics
The early days of COVID-19 saw employees camped at home, using kitchen tables, beds, sofas and whatever else they could use as makeshift workstations. The compounding stress of prolonged sub-optimal work conditions in a residential environment is taking a significant toll on the workforce's physical health and mental wellbeing. Unless organizations intervene to address this situation, the problem is likely going to snowball into a very expensive oversight.
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Friday, October 02nd, 2020
Take-Home COVID-19’ Claims: Preparing for a Second Wave of Coronavirus Litigation
The Spanish Influenza epidemic came in three waves, with the first hitting in March 1918, the second in the fall and the third in the winter of 1919. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers the second wave to have been the most deadly. In the United States, well over half of the epidemic's death toll of 675,000 occurred during the second wave. It is no surprise then that public health experts were already warning of the possibility of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic when the world was just beginning to acknowledge that the first wave was upon it in February.
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Wednesday, September 23rd, 2020
Key Insurance Considerations in a Record Hurricane Season
The active 2020 hurricane season has produced so many named storms that scientists ran out of traditional names and have moved to the Greek alphabet for the first time since 2005. Most recently, Hurricane Sally struck the Gulf Coast, making landfall in Alabama with winds above 100 miles per hour, causing widespread destruction, and leaving hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses without power. Ensuring that your business' insurance program is ready to deal with such perils will prove critical to maximizing insurance recovery for business interruption and property damage claims. Below are critical steps policyholders can take now to ensure that insurance available if and when it is needed.
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Wednesday, September 23rd, 2020
RIMS ERM Conference Preview: Q&A with Keynote Dr. Andrea Bonime-Blanc
This year's RIMS ERM Conference will be held virtually on November 4 and 5, 2020, promising two days packed with informative sessions featuring global risk leaders. The conference kicks off November 4th with a live keynote delivered by Dr. Andrea Bonime-Blanc, founder of GEC Risk Advisory and the author of Gloom to Boom: How Leaders Transform Risk Into Resilience and Value. She will also answer questions from the audience during a live session on November 5th.
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Monday, September 14th, 2020
RIMS Virtual Advocacy Week: A Q&A with Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier
Today, RIMS is taking its annual Legislative Summit online, kicking off the first RIMS Virtual Advocacy Week. Featuring a full slate of networking, a panel on pandemic insurance, updates on the 2020 U.S. elections, and hands-on advocacy with members of Congress, RIMS Virtual Advocacy Week is still open for last-minute registrations, if you want to join in on the action.
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Friday, September 04th, 2020
Hurricane Laura Damage Could Total Billions
Experts now project damage figures could be in the billions of dollars as a result of last week's Hurricane Laura, the category 4 storm that hit several Caribbean nations as well as Louisiana and Texas in the United States.
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Friday, August 28th, 2020
Hurricane Laura Leaves Destruction—and Pandemic-Related Recovery Challenges
Hurricane Laura made landfall in the United States at 1 a.m. on Thursday, hitting Louisiana and Texas as a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour and what National Hurricane Center officials called "unsurvivable" storm surge. In such ferocious wind, thousands of homes and businesses were damaged or completely destroyed, hundreds of thousands were left without power and, as of Thursday evening, at least four people had been killed.
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Thursday, August 20th, 2020
3 Tips for CCPA Enforcement During COVID-19
As we move into the second half of 2020 and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is officially enforced, we are also in the midst of a global crisis that was not properly on the radar when the regulation was enacted in January. Organizations are now being tasked with CCPA compliance in an unexpected remote work environment, with more personal data available online than ever before. And some organizations have the added privacy challenge of contact tracing practices or applications being used internally to monitor employee health.
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Friday, July 31st, 2020
Planning and Risk Assessment for Returning to Work From COVID-19 Closures
As businesses reopen and begin having their employees return to work, navigating the impacts of COVID-19 will undoubtedly be a challenge. Not only does keeping employees and customers safe take on new meaning, but sorting through rapidly changing guidelines can be overwhelming at best.
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Tuesday, July 07th, 2020
Spending Risks Shift as the Pandemic Continues
When Twitter offered permanent work-from-home status to all of its 4,600 employees in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it did so with a $1,000 stipend per employee to furnish and set up functional home office spaces.
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Thursday, July 02nd, 2020
Driver Safety Tips for Fourth of July Trips and Post-COVID Return to Work Commutes
Historically, the Fourth of July holiday weekend has presented some of the most dangerous days for drivers in the United States. Indeed, it may be the country's riskiest holiday of the year. This year, while many may be cancelling their holiday plans and staying home, others may be taking to the roads after months of little travel amid COVID-19 lockdowns.
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Wednesday, July 01st, 2020
OSHA Revises Stance on COVID-19 Record-Keeping and Enforcement
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently issued two enforcement memos regarding COVID-19. The first of these memos revised OSHA's requirements for employers as they determine whether individual cases of COVID-19 are work-related. The second revised OSHA's policy for handling COVID-19-related complaints, referrals, and severe illness reports. The changes in these revisions include:
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Monday, June 22nd, 2020
Preventing Paycheck Protection Program Loan Scams
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shutdowns have meant perilous times for small businesses across the country, with many shutting down temporarily or even permanently. As part of the U.S. government's efforts to forestall bankruptcies and layoffs, Congress allocated hundreds of billions of dollars for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Small businesses can apply for loans from the U.S. Small Business Association (SBA), which the SBA will forgive if the receiving business meets certain criteria, like "if all of the company's employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the money from the loan is used to pay for rent, mortgage interest, utilities or payroll."
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Thursday, June 18th, 2020
Supreme Court Affirms LGBTQ+ Workplace Rights
In a 6-3 decision this week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal anti-discrimination laws cover LGBTQ+ people and that they cannot be legally fired for their sexual orientation and gender identity, ensuring protection under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion that, "An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids."
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Tuesday, June 09th, 2020
Black Lives Matter: Taking Action on Diversity and Inclusion
As protesters across the United States call out systemic racism and police violence against Black people, and Pride Month honoring the LGBTQ+ community begins, diversity and inclusion issues are--and should be--drawing headlines and dominating conversations around the world.
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2020
How to Leverage Risk Management to Influence Positive Business Outcomes
Business strategy and risk management occupy separate spaces in most organizations. Business strategy sits at an enterprise or executive level, but risk management usually functions at a tactical and operational level. A chasm often exists between the two groups, removing important risk-based context from pivotal business decisions.
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Wednesday, May 06th, 2020
Mitigating Construction Risks with Advanced Training Techniques
Construction is consistently ranked as one of the riskiest jobs in the United States. Fluid workforces, high-risk scenarios and a communication disconnect between home office and front-line workers all result in the very real possibility of serious injury or even death.
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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020
Earth Day 2020: What Does Climate Change Mean for Risk Management?
On Earth Day 2020, risk professionals can reflect on ways to protect both the environment and their businesses. Worldwide, climate change poses countless risks, including increasing the frequency and magnitude of natural disasters, reducing access to resources and disrupting supply chains.
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Tuesday, March 31st, 2020
Converting a Conference to 100% Virtual in One Week
Conference organizers have been among the hardest hit by COVID-19. When your entire business is predicated on bringing people together, pivoting is not easy.
On March 12, 2020, the InsurTech NY team saw a dark future ahead. Officials had confirmed 500 people in the United States tested positive for the coronavirus, President Donald Trump had just announced restrictions on flights to and from Europe, and we were one week away from hosting the 2020 InsurTech NY Spring Conference, our annual New York City-based in-person event. We had planned to host seven panels, 20 startup competition pitches, and four TED-style talks, totaling more than 60 speakers. As part of the competition, more than 20 judges had to vote on winners in near real-time. We also promised to provide networking opportunities with one-on-one meetings for all attendees.
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Friday, March 27th, 2020
Putting Risk Management on the Front Line
Businesses in India expressed an overwhelming desire to approach risk management more strategically in this year's Excellence in Risk Management India report, with 68% of respondents deeming "integrating risk management into strategic planning" their top priority. Today, managing risk intelligently is everyone's responsibility--not just the company's executives--and the question of how to enable risk management at the front line of defense (FLoD) was a key theme for Marsh's "Enabling the First Line of Defense" panel discussion at the RIMS Risk Forum India 2019. Consistently taking the initiative is key to risk management, and panelists discussed a number of proactive strategies for enabling front-line employees to address risk.
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Thursday, March 19th, 2020
Spotting Coronavirus-Related Phishing Emails
Amid widespread public concern and constantly evolving news about the COVID-19 pandemic, cybercriminals are finding new fodder for phishing campaigns. With the eagerness for new information about the coronavirus outbreak, distraction during disruption, and the disorienting shift to remote work for many, employees may be particularly susceptible to falling for these schemes right now.
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Thursday, March 05th, 2020
Preparing for a Pandemic: Review Business Continuity Plans Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Organizations worldwide have been reacting to the recent coronavirus outbreak, COVID-19, in a variety of ways, from restricting nonessential employee travel to canceling large events. The possibility of a pandemic has the potential to disrupt workforces, supply chains and economic activity in the months ahead. So, it is with a sense of urgency that prudent organizations review and update their business continuity plans to insure their operational resiliency.
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Friday, February 28th, 2020
Mitigating Payment Fraud Risks
For businesses that thrive on person-to-person transactions, cash is quickly being replaced by cards, as well as tap-to-pay systems, mobile wallets and QR-based payment systems. These technologies will continue to dominate the market in the near future, but the long-term future of the payment card industry will likely be shaped by the impact of blockchain and artificial intelligence. These developments will eventually also impact risk management, marketing and financial planning, as they present opportunities for serious risks, including fraud. Hence, it is imperative for risk management professionals to plan for these short- and long-term changes in the industry.
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Tuesday, February 18th, 2020
Managing Coronavirus Business Interruptions
The novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV, now called COVID-19, has continued to spread through China and beyond, with more than 1,800 deaths reported as of this writing. The virus's spread has also had major impacts on business operations around the world, slowing or shuttering international companies' operations in China and prompting travel restrictions and evacuations.
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Monday, February 03rd, 2020
3 Key Risk Management Responses to the Coronavirus
The novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV continues to spread throughout China and other countries, seriously impacting business operations around the world. As governments and companies act to protect their citizens, operations and employees at home and abroad, these actions threaten to produce business interruptions, travel risks and other effects that could be detrimental to business continuity.
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Friday, January 24th, 2020
Travel and Business Interruption Risks Rise as Coronavirus Spreads
Originating in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV has spread quickly this month, migrating to multiple other countries as international health officials rush to contain its spread and calm fears. But the spread of the virus--and China's response--is already having major impacts on businesses both within the country and around the world.
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Wednesday, December 18th, 2019
Prevent Your Employees From Getting Tricked by Phishing Emails
We all know to watch for suspicious emails. But phishing emails are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, tricking even the savviest among us. The costs to consumers, businesses and institutions keep adding up: According to the FBI, online theft, fraud and exploitation totaled $2.7 billion in financial losses in 2018.
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Wednesday, December 11th, 2019
Twist and Shout: Avoiding Workplace Injuries with Risktech
This week's inaugural RIMS Risktech Forum highlighted many of the ways technology is changing how risk professionals approach their work, and the advantages of embracing new innovations. During the "What Can Risktech Do for Me?" panel, Mike Poulos of Marsh LLC, Jen Thorson of data analytics firm Modjoul, and Susan Shemanski, vice president of risk management for Adecco Employment Services discussed one of the practical applications of risktech--wearable workplace technology--to prevent injuries and unsafe behavior, protect workers, and mitigate liability for employers. In the course of normal business for many companies, employees in physically demanding jobs can twist, reach and otherwise strain their bodies in different ways that can lead to both immediate and long-term injuries. New technology offers a way to mitigate these risks.
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Wednesday, December 04th, 2019
Venice Sees Near-Record Flooding
The city of Venice, Italy, faced the worst flooding of its famous canals since the devastating floods of 1966. Venice has suffered major economic impact from this new round of flooding, with Mayor Luigi Brugnaro predicting that the damage will cost hundreds of millions of Euros, and claiming climate change is to blame.
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Monday, December 02nd, 2019
Three Tips for Using Telematics to Keep Drivers Safe This Winter
Speeding. Harsh stops. Rapid acceleration. Cornering. Fleet managers are likely familiar with these buzzwords related to driver behavior, but what is the real impact of not fixing the way employees operate company vehicles?
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Tuesday, November 19th, 2019
Americans Mistrust Companies with Personal Data, Study Shows
According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, most Americans believe that companies are tracking their activities on and offline, and that this activity is unavoidable. Not only that, but many also believe that they have little control over who can access an array of personal details, such as their location and online activity, including purchases they have made online or in person. This mistrust, coupled with the advent of more stringent data privacy regulations, means a more complex risk landscape for businesses operating online.
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Tuesday, October 29th, 2019
California Unveils New Earthquake Warning System
California governor Gavin Newsom announced a new state-wide system, created in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey, that will provide California residents with an early warning for coming earthquakes. Part of the system is an emergency messaging system that sends text warnings, similar to those that cell phone users already get for floods and missing persons. The other component of the system is a new app called MyShake, which will give people "tens of seconds" advance notice before a quake strikes. If you are in a house, that might be enough time to get to a safe spot away from falling furniture. If you are on the road, it may be enough time to pull off the road or stop before a bridge or tunnel.
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Thursday, October 17th, 2019
Strategies to Prevent Internal Fraud
As employees can be key perpetrators of fraud, creating and implementing best practices with regard to insiders is a key part of an enterprise's everyday risk management procedures. For example, developing internal controls that involve multiple layers of review for financial transactions, and arranging independent reviews of the company's financial records can prevent malfeasance, detect ongoing fraud and prevent it from continuing. In fact, according to Kroll's 2019 Global Fraud and Risk Report, businesses discovered insider fraud by conducting internal audits 38% of the time, through external audits 20% of the time and from whistleblowers 11% of the time.
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Monday, September 30th, 2019
Ahead of RIMS ERM Conference, Keynote Speaker Gretchen Anderson Talks Culture Change
At next month's RIMS ERM Conference 2019, the opening keynote speaker will be Gretchen Anderson, director of the Katzenbach Center at PwC and co-author of The Critical Few: Energize Your Company's Culture by Choosing What Really Matters. Her address will aim to provide risk professionals with a playbook for successful enterprise-wide culture change. She recently sat down with Risk Management Monitor for a preview, discussing the relationship between culture and productivity and the role of risk management in helping drive change.
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Thursday, September 26th, 2019
Travel Company Thomas Cook Collapses, Stranding Customers Worldwide
The world's oldest travel company, UK-based Thomas Cook--which operates hotels and resorts around the world as well as its own airlines--all but collapsed this week, cancelling all of the company's bookings (including flights and holiday packages), and closing its retail locations. The shutdown left 600,000 customers stranded, and Reuters called the effort to get passengers home "the biggest ever peacetime repatriation," with 64 flights bringing 14,700 back to the United Kingdom on Monday, and hundreds of thousands more are expected to be transported over the next two weeks. The collapse also leaves more than 20,000 employees out of work.
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Thursday, September 19th, 2019
Beyond Pride: Building Strong Diversity and Inclusion Programs
June 28, marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, demonstrations widely considered the most formative event to formally start the fight for LGBTQ rights in New York City and the United States as a whole. As June comes to a close and the city begins celebrating World Pride this weekend, enterprises should be thinking about how to extend the spirit of Pride month and embrace the importance of diversity and inclusion. Long after companies have retired their rainbow logos, they still face increasing need to build and maintain meaningful policies and programs in practice.
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Thursday, September 19th, 2019
Trade Dispute Worries US Companies in China
As the Trump administration wages an economic battle with China in the form of reciprocating tariffs and other economic measures, it may not be a great time to be an American company operating in China. The US-China Business Council (USCBC), an organization made up of 200 U.S. companies that do business with China, released its annual member survey, finding the trade dispute--and the ongoing political tensions underlying it--are a huge concern for these companies and may be adding to worries about doing business in China.
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Thursday, September 12th, 2019
Trade Dispute Worries US Companies in China
As the Trump administration wages an economic battle with China in the form of reciprocating tariffs and other economic measures, it may not be a great time to be an American company operating in China. The US-China Business Council (USCBC), an organization made up of 200 U.S. companies that do business with China, released its annual member survey, finding the trade dispute--and the ongoing political tensions underlying it--are a huge concern for these companies and may be adding to worries about doing business in China.
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Tuesday, September 10th, 2019
RIMS Canada 2019 Encourages Risk Managers to ‘Transform’
The 2019 RIMS Canada Conference got its green light Monday morning when technology and disruption strategist Shawn Kanungo entered the Edmonton Convention Centre in an ELA, an electronic autonomous shuttle being piloted in Canada. "Transform" is this year's conference theme and, as emcee, Kanungo emphasized the need for attendees to embrace risk in order to improve their organizations.
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Tuesday, September 10th, 2019
RIMS Canada 2019 Encourages Risk Managers to ‘Transform’
EDMONTON -- The 2019 RIMS Canada Conference got its green light Monday morning when technology and disruption strategist Shawn Kanungo entered the Edmonton Convention Centre in an ELA, an electronic autonomous shuttle being piloted in Canada. "Transform" is this year's conference theme and, as emcee, Kanungo emphasized the need for attendees to embrace risk in order to improve their organizations.
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Monday, September 09th, 2019
RIMS and ISACA Release Joint Report “Bridging the Digital Risk Gap”
All too often, IT and risk management professionals seem to be speaking a different language--that is, if they even speak at all. Bridging the Digital Risk Gap, the new report jointly authored by the RIMS, the risk management society®, and ISACA®, promotes understanding, collaboration and communication between these professionals to get the most out of their organizations' technological investments.
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Thursday, August 29th, 2019
Hurricane Preparation and Recovery Tips for Businesses
The first Atlantic hurricane of the season is rapidly approaching the mainland United States, with experts currently expecting Hurricane Dorian to make landfall in Florida on Sunday. For businesses both in the storm's path and beyond, it is important to take the opportunity to consider how to protect property from hurricane damage before and after storms. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that, on average, hurricane damage costs $54 billion annually, and even at this late date, there is always more businesses can do to try to mitigate such losses and damage to their property and operations.
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Wednesday, August 28th, 2019
Johnson & Johnson to Pay $572 Million in Opioid Crisis Lawsuit
This week, a judge in Oklahoma ordered pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million for its role in the opioid crisis that has ravaged the country and killed more than 6,000 people in Oklahoma alone. The ruling is the first to hold a drug manufacturer responsible for the crisis, which was fueled by companies flooding the market with addictive painkillers and pushing doctors to overprescribe the drugs. The amount is far less than the $17.5 billion that the state's attorney general sought, and the company says it plans to appeal the ruling.
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Thursday, August 22nd, 2019
Working to Close the Gender Pay Gap
U.S. government regulators at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) are requiring all private companies with over 100 workers to provide information including their workers' genders, race and ethnicity as it relates to compensation. The EEOC uses this information, in part, to measure any pay gaps between employees that could be based on these characteristics. The EEOC instituted the requirement in 2016, and it covers about 70,000 employers and 54 million workers.
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Friday, July 26th, 2019
Inclusion Does Not Stop Workplace Bias, Deloitte Survey Shows
In Deloitte's 2019 State of Inclusion Survey, 86% of respondents said they felt comfortable being themselves all or most of the time at work, including 85% of women, 87% of Hispanic respondents, 86% of African American respondents, 87% of Asian respondents, 80% of respondents with a disability and 87% of LGBT respondents. But other questions in the company's survey show a more troubling, less inclusive and productive office environment, and may indicate that simply implementing inclusion initiatives is not enough to prevent workplace bias.
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Thursday, July 18th, 2019
Governments Tackle Workplace Bullying and Harassment
This week, South Korea enacted new legislation addressing "gapjil," or bosses using their power to bully their employees. The measure criminalizes the practice of unfairly demoting or dismissing employees who have reported being subjected to bullying, imposing a three-year prison sentence or a 30 million won (approximately $25,400) fine for the practice. Workplace harassment is common in the country, with two-thirds of workers experiencing harassment and 80% witnessing it, according to a recent government study.
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Monday, July 15th, 2019
Catastrophic Floods More Frequent in 2019
Last week, after already experiencing heavy rainfalls and flooding, New Orleans was preparing for tropical storm Barry, expecting the storm to overflow or even breach the city's levees. Flights in and out of the city were cancelled, as were concerts and other public events, as the city braced for catastrophe. Barry ended up narrowly missing New Orleans, and instead moved inland, drenching other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi and causing floods and mass power outages in those areas. It was yet another example of how major flooding has become a normal occurrence for many regions of the country, and by all indications, it is becoming worse each year.
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Wednesday, July 03rd, 2019
Insulin Pumps Recalled After Hacking Vulnerability Revealed
After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expressed concern this week that some of its internet-connected insulin pumps are vulnerable to hacking and could not be patched, medical device manufacturer Medtronic Plc has announced that they would offer an exchange for the 4,000 patients who are reportedly using the vulnerable devices. If patients are using vulnerable out-of-warranty models, Medtronic is offering a newer replacement at a discounted price, and in-warranty models will be replaced free of charge.
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Monday, July 01st, 2019
Wayfair Workers Stage Walkout Over Border Facility Sales
Last week, online home goods retailer Wayfair saw a mass employee walkout related to the company selling $200,000 worth of bedroom furniture to BCFS, a government contractor running a facility in Texas that would detain thousands of immigrant children along the border. The employees were dissatisfied with the company's response to their letter objecting to the transaction and a previous furniture sale to another BCFS facility for children that was shut down after the Department of Health and Human Services raised concerns, including that the company was not conducting required staff background checks, such as for records of child abuse.
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Thursday, February 21st, 2019
Ransomware Down, Extortion and Email Fraud Up in 2018, Proofpoint Finds
Ransomware may have waned at the end of last year, but that gave way to straight-up extortion, according to Proofpoint's newest Quarterly Threat Report, Q4 2018.
Despite a slight resurgence in the middle of last year, ransomware strains appeared in "relatively small, sporadic email campaigns" that by Dec. 31, 2018, comprised one-tenth of 1% of overall malicious message volume.
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Thursday, February 21st, 2019
Aon’s Top Cyber Threats for 2019 Revealed
Companies' cyber risk profiles should be updated in tandem with each new digital technology that it embraces, according to Aon in its 2019 Cyber Security Risk Report. The scale of attacks and their impact on organizations is intensifying, and as recently reported, are becoming less predictable. Ransomware attacks may have peaked in 2018, as industry experts have noted, which sent malicious actors reverting to good old fashioned digital extortion, albeit with a slight twist.
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Thursday, February 21st, 2019
New Fatigue Reports Awaken Employers to Injury Risks
The National Safety Council (NSC) estimates that roughly 13 percent of workplace injuries are attributable to sleep problems, causing an economic impact of $400 billion. NSC information suggests that employers with 1,000 employees could incur losses of more than $1 million per year in missed workdays, lower productivity and increased healthcare due to employee fatigue.
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Wednesday, January 30th, 2019
Seven Qualities of an Impactful Risk Register
You might have resolved to tidy up some processes and press the "reset" button on your risk register in the new year. Whether you've started a new position, want to improve your company's operations or just overhaul your existing register, the basic foundations are out there.
Demonstrating their altruistic nature, many RIMS members have been offering their insight to those seeking suggestions - even going to far as to send their Excel sheet registers. Here are some criteria for your X and Y axes, culled from the OPIS network and existing resources on Risk Knowledge. While they are by no means a finite list, they can act as building blocks for your new template or register.
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Wednesday, January 30th, 2019
Limit Organizational Exposure During the Polar Vortex
A polar vortex has gripped large areas of the Northern United States, and all-time lows are being approached in parts of Midwest states like Iowa and Illinois. This frigid weather phenomenon is defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) as a large area of low pressure and cold air that normally surrounds the North and South poles. But during unstable conditions, the Arctic air can expand and drift southward to North America.
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Wednesday, October 24th, 2018
Q&A: California Businesses Prepare for the Next Quake
On October 18, more than 10 million Californians participated in The Great Shakeout to prepare for the next catastrophic earthquake and bring awareness to earthquake preparedness across the state. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) predicts a 99% chance of a magnitude 6.7+ earthquake in the Bay Area within the next 30 years, preparation is essential.
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Wednesday, October 17th, 2018
Hurricane Michael Death Toll Reaches 29 As Water Risks Emerge
With experts estimating weeks-at-least before normalcy can return to Florida's Panhandle coast, Hurricane Michael--a category 4 storm which destroyed thousands of houses in Florida and Georgia--has so far caused at least 29 deaths and numerous injuries in four states. Upon its touchdown on Oct. 10, Michael became one of the strongest ever to hit the U.S. mainland with wind speeds of up to 155 miles per hour. Reports indicate that dozens of people are still missing in the U.S. and up to 35 people remain unaccounted for in hard-hit Mexico Beach.
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Wednesday, October 10th, 2018
Deer Collisions Drop Slightly, But Accident Costs Still Rise
With fall in full swing and holidays on the horizon, new information about animal collisions on the road have been made available for employers and employees.
State Farm's 16th annual deer-vehicle collision study indicates that overall in the U.S., drivers had a 1-in-167 chance of having a crash with a deer, elk, moose or caribou. This is a five-point drop from last year when the national odds were 1-in-162.
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Monday, October 08th, 2018
Tropical Storm Michael Upgraded to Hurricane, Approaches Florida
The National Hurricane Center classified Tropical Storm Michael as a category 3 hurricane Monday morning as it passed through Cuba and approached Florida.
Over the weekend, Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for several counties from the Gulf Coast to Navarre on the Panhandle to the Suwanee River. Gov. Scott also directed the state's National Guard to activate 500 guardsmen to assist with planning and prepare for response in impacted areas as the state monitors the storm.
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Thursday, October 04th, 2018
First Nationwide Wireless Emergency Alert Tested
For many mobile users in America, yesterday's afternoon coffee break may have been met with an additional buzz.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials sent a test of the first-ever presidential alert at 2:18 P.M. (EST) to nearly 225 million mobile devices in the United States. The alert would be used in the event of a major national emergency and the test assesses the president's ability to send a message to the American people within 10 minutes of a disaster.
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Monday, October 01st, 2018
Inadequate Emergency System Contributes to Indonesia’s Rising Death Toll Following Earthquake and Tsunami
The death toll on Indonesia's island of Sulawesi has risen to 1,200 as of this morning, in the aftermath of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Friday and the tsunami that followed. As emergency crews still lead efforts to locate and save victims and clear debris, officials warn that the number of casualties could rise further.
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Friday, September 28th, 2018
Terror Attacks Hit Five-Year Worldwide Low
There is some good news for international travelers: Terror attacks and casualties continue to decline worldwide. New information released by the U.S. State Department last week found that there has been a 23% drop in attacks from 2016 to 2017 and a 27.1% drop in victims killed in the same one-year period.
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Thursday, September 20th, 2018
Security Risks of Third-Party Vendor Relationships
Most organizations are heavily reliant on third-party vendors for a large component of their business. According to Deloitte, a typical Fortune 500 company may use more than 100,000 external third-parties--including vendors, suppliers, service providers, and outsourcers--to meet its business objectives and stay competitive. With these added relationships, however, come higher exposures to security risks including data breaches and cyberattacks.
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Monday, September 17th, 2018
Hurricane Florence Losses Estimated at $2.5 Billion
Now a tropical depression, Florence hovered primarily over North and South Carolina over the weekend, dumping record-breaking rainfall in those states and killing at least 17 people. Remnants of the system are heading north, bringing rain through Tuesday.
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Friday, September 14th, 2018
RIMS Legislative Summit Focuses on NFIP Renewal
WASHINGTON, D.C.--The menacing presence of Hurricane Florence turned the focus at the RIMS Legislative Summit to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), an ever-important issue for business owners across the country.
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Tuesday, September 11th, 2018
Looking Back at the Big Flood: Time to Examine Your ‘Human Supply Chain’
The devastation left behind after Hurricane Harvey is a reminder that people are a critical link in the effort to build community storm resilience. We often remind our customers that to prepare for a disaster, they need to consider their supply chain risk--will they be able to access goods and services in the aftermath of a storm.
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Wednesday, September 05th, 2018
Q&A: School Shooter Preparedness
Schools across the country are back in session. And in the wake of high-profile school shootings earlier this year, safety is a top priority for students, parents, educators and communities. Steven Smith, founder and president of Guardian Defense, specializes in active shooter preparedness and works with education industry leaders to keep their facilities safe.
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Thursday, August 30th, 2018
Structures in Wildland Urban Interface Present Added Fire Risks
The trend of building homes in isolated wooded areas has been increasing across the United States. This urbanization of woodlands has changed the way forests are managed. Small wildfires that were once allowed to burn out are now suppressed to protect homes and buildings. Added to this are drought conditions exacerbated by climate change. All of these factors have increased the likelihood of wildfires.
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Wednesday, August 29th, 2018
Jacksonville Murders Force Reassessment of Active Shooter Risks
A mass shooting at a video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida on Sunday has once again shined a spotlight on the growing risks businesses face even as they conduct normal operations.
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Thursday, August 23rd, 2018
Follow-Through Needed for Effective Safety Culture
The concept of a culture of safety can be stalled by employers that say they want to be safer, but do little to implement real change. For example, a company hoping to understand the causes of fatigue, but won't adjust its schedules, can set itself up for injuries and hazards.
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Tuesday, August 21st, 2018
Steering the Sales Strategy Toward Compliance
It isn't difficult to understand that one of the main reasons a salesperson would make a bribe is to make a sale. This kind of corrupt practice is common and even expected in many areas of the world. It is why sales and anti-corruption compliance are so often uttered in the same breath.
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Thursday, August 16th, 2018
Body Scanners Installed in L.A., Tested in Other Locations
Security scanners that screen passengers entering stations and terminals are being tested around the country and have been installed in subway stations in Los Angeles. The Associated Press reported that the machines scan for both metallic and non-metallic objects. They can detect suspicious items from a distance of 30 feet and are capable of scanning more than 2,000 passengers per hour. About 150,000 passengers ride on the Metro's Red Line daily and the subway system counted more than 112 million rides last year, the AP said.
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Tuesday, August 14th, 2018
Cyber Insurance Strategies Explored: RIMS Report
High-profile data breaches have been making headlines recently, and their damage can transcend industries, which is why cybersecurity is often a top priority for risk managers. With many traditional insurance policies no longer responding to or outright excluding cyber events, risk professionals must understand their options to ensure the organization is protected in the event of a data breach.
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Thursday, August 09th, 2018
RIMS Report: Establishing and Communicating ERM
Recent trends indicate that management is being consulted more than ever by executives and boards who are looking for information that can aid in decision making. This has moved the value of enterprise risk management (ERM) to the forefront, to give the board an overall view of the risks the company faces.
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Tuesday, August 07th, 2018
Amid Wildfires, Calif.’s Emergency Warning Systems Take Heat
Overnight, the Mendocino Complex Fire in Northern California expanded far enough to oust the 2017 Thomas Fire as the largest wildfire in the state's history. Comprising two joined fires, the Mendocino Complex Fire has burned through 443 square miles in the area north of San Francisco. As of Tuesday morning, the fires burned more than 140 structures, including at least 75 homes, and was 30% contained.
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Monday, August 06th, 2018
Cyber’s Human Side
People are often tired, distracted and overworked. They are bound to make mistakes, inadvertently overlook policies and procedures and have quick lapses in judgement--forgetting hours and hours of training.
Human error is a significant problem when it comes to managing cyber exposures. Most cyber surveys point to people as the root cause of a breach. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) compiles statistics about the main causes of reported data security incidents. In its first 2018 quarterly report, four of the five top causes reported to them involved human errors:
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Thursday, August 02nd, 2018
The Most Dangerous Month For Drivers Has Begun
Now that August has arrived, warnings are being posted--the United States has entered its deadliest month for drivers, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). IIHS information revealed that 505 fatalities have been reported on Aug. 2 every year between 2012 and 2016--the most recent studied--making it the most fatal day for drivers in that time frame. During the same five-year span, July 4 had the second-highest number of traffic fatalities with 495.
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Monday, July 30th, 2018
Total Cost of Risk Drops for Fourth Straight Year, RIMS Finds
The risk management profession is proving its resiliency. Even in the face of major hurricanes, technological influence and the seemingly common threat of international trade wars, 2017 saw the total cost of risk (TCOR) decline for the fourth consecutive year, according to the 2018 RIMS Benchmark Survey, which was jointly published by RIMS and Advisen.
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Monday, July 30th, 2018
Calif. Carr Fire Claims 6 Lives
Just when it seemed like things couldn't get any worse in California, the Carr wildfire ignited, claiming six lives so far. The fire in Northern California near the city of Redding has been burning since July 23 and is now one of the largest in the state.
Almost 90,000 acres have burned, destroying more than 500 homes and commercial buildings and damaging 135 structures. Firefighters, who are working 24- to 36-hour shifts with little rest in between, said they are making progress and are now on the offense rather than in a defensive mode.
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Thursday, July 26th, 2018
Traveling? It’s No Time To Protest
Traveling for business to a foreign country has its assumed risks. Typical details like language barriers and exchange rates can be daunting enough, but businesses should be mindful of the potential effects of a protest or demonstration near their employees' hotels or destinations.
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Wednesday, July 25th, 2018
Why Visibility Into Contracts is Crucial for Procurement Pros
Risk is a topic of pervasive and growing concern in supply and sourcing management. Procurement itself is no longer just about acquiring products and services for the best price and controlling expenses. Instead, purchasing and supply professionals are under tremendous pressure to drive out costs and ensure that procurement strategy is in line with wider business objectives, including how personally identifiable information is handled.
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Tuesday, July 24th, 2018
Data Breach Risk: What’s Next?
Ten years ago, many companies didn't even ask about using encryption to protect data. Over the years, that has changed. More security and privacy professionals began to see it as an option in their cybersecurity defense. Then it eventually became a necessary component of most companies' security strategies and the use of encrypted laptops became a condition precedent for many cyber and privacy insurance policies.
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Thursday, July 19th, 2018
Deadly Ferguson Wildfires Threaten Access to Yosemite Park
The Ferguson wildfires have been spreading in Mariposa County, California on the western edge of Yosemite National Park for days, burning 27 square miles and taking the life of one firefighter.
The Mercury News reported that more than 1,400 firefighters have been on the scene trying to protect 100 nearby homes and businesses that are in the fire's path as it moves south and east.
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Wednesday, July 18th, 2018
The Data Analytics Adventure
Is your audience changing? Are your products still relevant and addressing customers' needs? Are there opportunities for organization to predict--or least make an informed guess--about the future of the market or other trends? Answers to these difficult questions are often buried in the overwhelming amount of data organizations are already collecting and storing.
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Friday, July 13th, 2018
Lawfulness of Financial Crime Data Processing Under GDPR
Much that has been written about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) relates to the burden of obtaining proper consents in order to process data. This general theme has provoked questions about whether and how financial institutions can process data to fight financial crime if they need consent of the data subject. While there are certainly valid questions, GDPR is much more permissive to the extent data is used to prevent or monitor for financial crime.
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Tuesday, July 10th, 2018
2Q Sees 2.5% Average P&C Rate Increase
Property and Casualty rates in the United States were up 2.5% on average in the second quarter of 2018, with continued tough conditions for trucking and auto, MarketScout reports.
"Insurers seem to have a longer memory these days. It's hard to find a commercial insurer who hasn't suffered from a book of auto/trucking risks in the past 10 years," Richard Kerr, MarketScout chief executive officer said in a statement. He noted that previous bad experiences and challenges have meant that fewer insurers are willing to write auto or trucking risks. "The demand is exceeding the supply so rates continue to trend upward," he said.
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Friday, July 06th, 2018
The Business Impact of the Supreme Court’s Travel Ban Decision
In one of its most anticipated cases in decades, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26 upheld President Trump's latest "travel ban," delivering a key win to the Trump administration and one of its strict immigration enforcement stances. The Court concluded the president's executive order--which largely targeted individuals from predominately Muslim countries--did not violate the Constitution's Establishment Clause by favoring one religion over another, ruling that the order was a lawful exercise of the authority granted to the president by Congress.
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Thursday, July 05th, 2018
Resiliency in 2018: Q&A With BCI’s David Thorp
Organizational resiliency is a focus of the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) and executive director David Thorp. It was the theme of this year's annual Business Continuity Awareness Week, which Risk Management Monitor covered in May, and was the focus of BCI's updated manifesto.
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Thursday, June 28th, 2018
Starbucks And Coffee Industry To Reassess Strategies
The coffee industry is poised for moderate growth in the next five years, but is warned of an emerging risk: an informed consumer, according to a recent IBISWorld report.
"Despite long-term, aggregate declines in healthy eating, consumers are more aware of health issues associated with fatty foods and are increasingly going out of their way to avoid them," its latest Coffee & Snack Shops industry report notes. Consumers who are more aware of the nutritional information of a Starbucks Frappuccino, for example, may be less inclined to make repeat purchases. "The healthy eating index is expected to stagnate [in] 2018, but as consumers' diets progressively improve, this driver continues to pose a threat to industry operators," IBISWorld said.
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Tuesday, June 26th, 2018
Safety Groups Warn of Added Summer Risks
Summer has arrived, but it is not a time for total relaxation. According to the National Safety Council (NSC), July and August typically see more accidental deaths than any other two-month period--a trend that includes drowning, pediatric vehicular heatstroke, pedestrian deaths, natural disasters and gun-related fatalities.
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Thursday, June 21st, 2018
Despite A ‘Near-Average’ Forecast, Hurricane Flooding May Increase
With so many businesses and individuals affected by Hurricanes including Maria, Harvey and Irma in 2017, risk managers and insurers are looking to revised forecasts of this year's hurricane season for a glimmer of hope that 2018 will not bring the same destruction. They may have found it in new information released by Colorado State University, which indicates that a near-average season is likely. It predicts 14 named storms between now and Nov. 30, of which six would become hurricanes. But the caveat is that one immense storm during a "near-average" season can still wreak havoc on businesses and homes.
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Tuesday, June 19th, 2018
New RIMS Report Delivers a ‘Wakeup Call’ To Risk Managers
According to the new RIMS report, Enterprise Risk Management's Wakeup Call: 10 Years After, an increasing number of organizations are at least partially integrating ERM into their frameworks as they prepare for the possibility of another financial crisis or a new threat.
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Monday, June 18th, 2018
Multiple Risks to Watch Out For at 2018 World Cup
The 2018 World Cup tournament began on June 14 and lasts until July 15. Thousands of fans will travel to Russia for the event, which consists of 64 matches and 32 teams in 11 cities. Like other mega events, it presents countless challenges for a number of industries including construction, travel, hospitality and security.
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Friday, June 15th, 2018
Suicide Discussions in the Workplace
Conversations about suicide in the workplace have been seemingly unavoidable, due to the self-inflicted deaths of apparel icon Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, chef, author and "Parts Unknown" host, last week. Employers may use these tragedies to reconsider their own prevention and awareness efforts, and ways they can productively contribute to the dialogue and keep their workers safe.
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Wednesday, June 13th, 2018
Expect the Unexpected: Mitigating the Risks of Natural Disasters
As we've seen with the recent Kilauea volcanic eruption and last year's catastrophic hurricane season, natural disasters are becoming more frequent and dramatically more powerful. In fact, NOAA recently reported that weather and climate disasters reached an all-time high in damage costs within the United States, exceeding $300 billion in 2017.
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Monday, June 11th, 2018
Coastal High Tide Flooding Escalates, NOAA Reports
According to the third U.S. National Climate Assessment, "Global climate is changing and this is apparent across the United States in a wide range of observations." Rising temperatures leading to increasingly high sea levels have changed coastal flood patterns, leading to more frequent high tide flooding, the National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA) said in its National Climate Report's 2018 Outlook of coastal flooding.
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Wednesday, June 06th, 2018
Compliance in 2018: Q&A with James Reese of the SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently named James Reese as the Chief Risk and Strategy Officer for the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), which also leads the Office of Risk and Strategy (ORS). These offices assess companies' and products' risk to the financial markets and influence the SEC's rule-making initiatives, among other actions. OCIE conducts the SEC's National Exam Program (NEP), which was created to protect investors, ensure market integrity and support responsible capital formation through risk-focused strategies that
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Wednesday, June 06th, 2018
Secure Messaging in Incident Response and Business Continuity
Today's businesses face unprecedented risks. As mass interconnectivity replaces operational silos, every aspect of business, from transportation and the supply chain to email, data storage, facilities management and financial transactions, are all vulnerable to compromise, disruption and human error. In addition to the people, processes and technology that are at risk in a crisis, so too are the communications mediums most commonly used for incident notification and response.
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Wednesday, May 30th, 2018
National Safety Month Targets Preventable Deaths
Hazardous work zones, insufficient planning, prescription and illegal drugs and distracted driving continue to affect the careers and companies of employees in the United States. According to the National Safety Council's (NSC) Injury Facts, the lifetime odds for the top three accidental causes of death are motor vehicle crashes (1 in 102), opioid and painkiller use (1 in 109) and falls (1 in 119).
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Thursday, May 24th, 2018
Are You Prepared for GDPR?
If your work involves personal data, you probably already know the European Union's (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enforcement date is May 25. While penalties for noncompliance can be stiff, the sky may not be falling just yet.
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Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018
Lava Threatens Hawaii’s Land, Economy and Ecology
Activity from the Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii, in Lava Zones 1 and 2--deemed the most dangerous of the island's nine zones--continues into its third week. As previously reported, aftershocks, lava flow and lingering hazardous fumes in Lanipuna spilled into nearby areas. About 1,800 people living in surrounding neighborhoods were ordered to be evacuated earlier this month by Hawaii County. The one serious injury reported was of a man sitting on this front porch, who sustained a leg injury caused by lava splatter.
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Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018
Confronting D&O Insurers’ Efforts To Carve Back Subpoena Coverage
Whether a government subpoena constitutes a "claim" is a frequently contested issue between D&O insurers and their policyholders. D&O policies--at least with respect to coverage for private companies and individual insureds at any company--typically define "claim" through multiple subparagraphs: first, a broad and generalized subparagraph that usually references a "written demand for monetary or non-monetary relief," followed by several narrowly framed subparagraphs that address more specific situations, such as "a civil or criminal proceeding commenced by the service of a complaint or similar pleading." Most courts have held that generalized language, such as any "written demand for . . . non-monetary relief," must be read expansively to encompass government subpoenas.
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Monday, May 21st, 2018
Uptick Charted in Telemedicine Cyberrisk
Advances in telemedicine have benefited patients, but, as with any emerging technology, they also create exposure to cybersecurity risk. In addition to patients' data, monitoring and diagnostic devices that can provide treatment from a distance can be compromised due to a variety of causes--from hackers to employee error.
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Friday, May 18th, 2018
Implications of Flood Risk
Across the vast geography of the United States, flood is no stranger to any of the states. From the March 2018 Nor'Easters that slammed the East Coast to the numerous storms and hurricanes that have swept across the country, both coastal and non-coastal regions are all at risk of flood.
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Thursday, May 17th, 2018
Workforce Drug Positivity Rate Still Peaking
Workforce use of illicit drugs across the board--including cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine--remains at its highest rate in a decade, a new study by Quest Diagnostics found.
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Friday, May 11th, 2018
Hawaii Volcanic Activity Reinforces States’ Need for Catastrophe Planning
Recent volcanic activity in Hawaii has turned national attention to emergency preparedness planning. As previously reported, the Kilauea eruption lessened but caused aftershocks, lava flow and lingering hazardous fumes in nearby areas. About 1,800 people live in the area, which was ordered to be evacuated last week by Hawaii County. No deaths or injuries have been reported.
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Tuesday, May 08th, 2018
Hawaii Volcano Subsides, Aftershocks Continue
Volcanic activity from the Kilauea eruption in Hawaii has lessened, although aftershocks, lava flow and hazardous fumes continue in some areas, the Hawaii Volcano Observatory reported yesterday. Aftershocks from Friday's magnitude-6.9 earthquake also continue, with more expected, including larger aftershocks potentially producing rockfalls and associated ash clouds, according to the United States Geological Survey.
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Monday, May 07th, 2018
Business Continuity Awareness Week Takes On Emergency Preparedness
Resilience is constantly on the minds of risk professionals. If last year taught us anything--between ransomware attacks, natural disasters, and pandemics, just to name a few examples--it is that businesses have unlimited reasons to plan for major disruptions.
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Friday, May 04th, 2018
Reputational Crisis Forces Cambridge Analytica’s Closure
Most of us are aware of the recent scandal involving Facebook and political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, wherein the latter company obtained data from up to 87 million Facebook users and, in turn, built profiles of individual voters and their political preferences to best target advertising and sway voter sentiment. This information was used to enable Donald Trump's campaign in the 2016 presidential election.
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Tuesday, May 01st, 2018
LIRR Misses Critical Juncture for Positive Train Control
Last week, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) confirmed interruptions in its ability to fully install positive train control (PTC) across its system by the end of the year. Newsday reported that the LIRR system, which is a unit of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) network, failed 16 out of 52 factory tests performed in early March using a computerized simulation of the new technology.
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Friday, April 27th, 2018
Truck Driver Shortage Impacting Shipping, Retail Prices
Factors including electronic-logging of driver hours, a growing need for shipment of items by Amazon and a surge in retirement of baby-boomers have meant a shortage of freight truck drivers and rising shipping costs.
The American Trucking Associations reported a shortfall of 51,000 truck drivers nationwide in 2017, up from 36,500 in 2016 and 20,000 in 2013. The ATA projects the driver gap will increase to nearly 100,000 by 2021.
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Wednesday, April 25th, 2018
Growing Cities Mean Growing Risks
On a recent list of the fastest growing American cities, Nashville jumped from 20th to 7th in a year. There are more than 210 active construction projects in the downtown core alone. We are hardly alone. Denver, New York, Charlotte, Atlanta and more are experiencing similar growth. Cities are booming and growing, and the construction cycle is showing little sign of letting up soon.
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Monday, April 23rd, 2018
Prescription Opioid Risks to the Workplace Explored at RIMS 2018
SAN ANTONIO - When the White House declared opioid use a national Public Health Emergency under federal law in 2017, businesses began reviewing their policies and making efforts to curb their employees' abuse of the drug in its prescribed form. This escalating risk to organizations is why the business impact of prescription opioid use was such a hot topic at RIMS 2018, where a session on April 17 focused on the practical and bottom-line costs of workforce use of prescription opioids. In a session the next day, attendees learned how liability policies are responding to government-led lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, and how to prepare for similar suits brought against other industries.
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Thursday, April 19th, 2018
Business and Employee Safety During Crisis Explored at RIMS 2018
SAN ANTONIO - Emergency preparedness and action plans amid violent crises were explored during educational sessions at RIMS 2018 here. On Monday and Tuesday, experts discussed ways businesses can prepare for active shooter events and kidnapping crises. Experts agreed that in such events, lives, operations, reputation and finances are all at stake.
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Tuesday, April 17th, 2018
Risk Manager of the Year: Q&A with Rebecca Cady
Rebecca Cady, vice president and chief risk officer of Children's National Medical Center (CNMC) in Washington, D.C. was named the RIMS 2018 Risk Manager of the Year today. CNMC is the largest freestanding pediatric academic medical center and health system in the greater D.C. area., with annual revenues of nearly $1.2 billion.
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Monday, April 16th, 2018
RIMS Bestows Top Industry Honors and Awards
SAN ANTONIO--At today's RIMS 2018 Annual Conference & Exhibition Awards Luncheon, the risk management society kicked off the week by issuing its top marks of distinction for leadership and achievement in the industry
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Monday, April 16th, 2018
Risk Management of Technology Risks Lagging, Survey Finds
SAN ANTONIO--Technology is becoming more and more necessary for the growth of companies, enhancing their abilities to get products to their destination faster and automate core processes. In fact, it's predicted that revenues from AI-related technologies will reach $127 billion by 2025.Technology has also led to safer work conditions for employees with the use of wearable technology and drones.
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Monday, April 16th, 2018
Risk Management of Technology Risks Lagging, Survey Finds
SAN ANTONIO--Technology is becoming more and more necessary for the growth of companies, enhancing their abilities to get products to their destination faster and automate core processes. In fact, it's predicted that revenues from AI-related technologies will reach $127 billion by 2025.Technology has also led to safer work conditions for employees with the use of wearable technology and drones.
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Friday, April 13th, 2018
200 New ‘Nightmarish’ Reasons to Wash Your Hands
New nationwide testing in 2017 uncovered 221 instances of unusual resistance genes in what is known as "nightmare bacteria," according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) monthly Vital Signs report, released last week. Germs with unusual antibiotic resistance (AR) include those that cannot be killed by all or most antibiotics, are uncommon in a geographic area or the U.S., or have specific genes that allow them to spread their resistance to other germs.
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Tuesday, April 10th, 2018
Nat. Work Zone Awareness Week Targets Construction Zone Safety
Hazardous work zones continue to affect the careers and companies of employees in the U.S. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were 765 work zone fatalities in 2016, which marked a 7% uptick from the previous year. In 2015, in addition to motor vehicle-related fatalities (the majority of which were in construction zones), 35,500 people were injured in work zone crashes, as reported in the 2017 edition of the National Safety Council's Injury Facts.
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Monday, April 09th, 2018
P&C Rates Continue Upward Trend
The U.S. property and casualty industry continues to show rate increases, with a first quarter composite rate of plus 2%, according to MarketScout. The increase is in all lines except workers compensation, which had a rate decrease of 2%. The trend follows a 2% increase in the fourth quarter of 2017.
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Wednesday, April 04th, 2018
Black Coffee Blues
If a new court decision in California is enforced, baristas will have to place another label on cups next to customers' names--a cancer warning.
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Wednesday, March 28th, 2018
The Planet’s Plastic Garbage Problem
A giant island composed of plastic waste thrice the size of France is floating in the Pacific Ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) contains 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic weighing 80,000 metric tons. It is located between Hawaii and California, which has the distinction of being the world's largest accumulation zone for ocean plastics because it just happens to be where multiple sea currents meet and where the (mostly) plastic mass churns.
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Monday, March 26th, 2018
5 Tips for Choosing the Right TPA
While many risk managers have had excellent experience with their third party administrators (TPAs), others have been disappointed. Unfortunately, when the match isn't right, the risk manager may be left with poor claim outcomes, higher claims and insurance costs, and difficulty identifying issues and making corrections.
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Friday, March 23rd, 2018
U.S. Dept. of Interior Celebrates National Puppy Day
Today, March 23 is National Puppy Day, celebrated by organizations everywhere that benefit from the smarts and loyalty of our canine friends. Dogs assist humans in a number of situations including bomb-sniffing dogs on the battlefield, TSA dogs used in airports to locate contraband and as reported in Risk Management, arson dogs are employed to determine the cause of mysterious fires for both fire and police departments. Seeing eye dogs and service dogs for veterans have important jobs as well.
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Thursday, March 22nd, 2018
Limit Heart Attack Likelihood with Safe Snow Shoveling
With the northeast hammered by its fourth major snowstorm this month, businesses and property owners in many areas are digging out, breaking out the salt pellets and shovels (just when they were hoping to stash them for the next eight months).
The risk of myocardial infarction rises during snowstorms, especially for someone who is not already physically active. According to the Nationwide Children's Hospital, snow shoveling leads to about 100 deaths and 11,500 injuries and medical emergencies each year. That is why, to be safe, you and your maintenance worker, or team, should consider some hazards before a dig-out and clearing.
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Monday, March 19th, 2018
FIU Bridge Collapse Brings Up Design, Safety Concerns
The 950-ton section of a pedestrian bridge's collapse at Florida International University (FIU) that claimed six lives on March 15 has put stakeholders, design and installation firms under intense scrutiny. After months of preparation, the 174-foot span had been installed on March 10, and investigators and authorities are trying to establish if negligence played a part in the tragedy on SW 8th Street on FIU's Modesto A. Maidique Campus.
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Thursday, March 15th, 2018
Q&A: Cape Town’s ‘Day Zero’
On March 22, annual World Water Day will be especially relevant, as the United Nations and its co-sponsors hope to raise global awareness of water risks--particularly in Cape Town, South Africa. As we previously reported, a diminishing water supply is that city's top priority, as it is counting down to a possible "Day Zero" (which had been set for July 9, but the City has stopped providing a date), when it could effectively become the first major city to run dry.
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Tuesday, March 13th, 2018
2 Fertility Clinic Failures a ‘Bad Coincidence’
Equipment failures on the same day at two fertility clinics located across the country from each other--in California and Ohio--may have damaged or destroyed thousands of frozen eggs and embryos. The simultaneous "black swan events" appear to have no connection to each other and have experts mystified.
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Friday, March 09th, 2018
Copycat Threats Escalate After Fla. School Shooting
Numbers of bomb threats and false alarms following the deadly Feb. 14 shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida have jumped, causing fear and panic across the U.S. and creating havoc for school personnel and law enforcement.
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Thursday, March 01st, 2018
TSA’s Anti-Terror Trackers Tested at Penn Station
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had a presence in New York's Penn Station this week, as it partnered with Amtrak to test new security technology that can help prevent and detect risks of terrorism and violence.
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Wednesday, February 28th, 2018
Amtrak Positive About Meeting PTC Deadline
Earlier this month, Amtrak President Richard Anderson told the House railroads subcommittee that his company is on target to complete installation of positive train control (PTC) on the infrastructure it controls and on all of its equipment by the Dec. 31, 2018 federal deadline. He warned, however, that trains without PTC by the deadline could not use Amtrak's tracks
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Monday, February 26th, 2018
Companies Continue to Grapple with Cyberrisk, Study Finds
As technology becomes more critical to company success, the number of cyberattacks has climbed. As a result, cyberrisk has become one of the top risks for companies around the world, according to the Marsh-Microsoft Global Cyber Risk Perception Survey. Almost two-thirds of survey respondents identified cyberrisk as one of their organization's top-five risk management priorities--almost double the percentage who rated cyber as a top risk in a 2016 study, Marsh said, adding that respondents whose organizations had been successfully attacked were slightly more likely to prioritize cyberrisk than those who had not.
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Wednesday, February 21st, 2018
2016 Drug Overdose Death Rate 3-Times Higher than in 1999
Deaths from drug overdose have reached crisis proportions in the United States, with more than 63,600 deaths in 2016--more than three times that of 1999. The majority were males, whose deaths increased from 8.2 in 1999 to 26.2 in 2016; compared to females, whose rate rose from 3.9 in 1999 to 13.4 in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Wednesday, February 14th, 2018
New Bill Would Toughen Calif. Dam Inspections
A year after the spillway collapse at the Oroville Dam, leading to evacuations of almost 200,000 residents and a beat-the-clock patching job to avoid a break in the tallest dam in the United States, new legislation to strengthen inspections of dams awaits approval of California Gov. Jerry Brown.
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Monday, February 12th, 2018
Prepare Now for Ransomware
In 2017, a company was hit with ransomware every 40 seconds. Organizations in all industry sectors were subject to ransomware attacks, as these attacks often opportunistically take advantage of security shortcomings. The average ransom demand was more than $1,000.00--greater than three times the average in 2015. What's more, one in five business that paid ransom never got its data back.
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Wednesday, February 07th, 2018
Thousands of U.S. Bridges Deemed Deficient
More than 54,000 bridges along the Interstate Highway System in the United States were rated as "structurally deficient," according to new analysis conducted by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association's (ARTBA). This was just one of many of the concerning statistics detailed by ARTBA in its 2018 Deficient Bridge Report on Jan. 29.
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Monday, February 05th, 2018
Workplace Sexual Harassment: More HR Guidance Needed
From news anchors, to titans of the entertainment industry, to corporate executives, and elected officials, headlines show no one is above the fallout of sexual harassment in the workplace. Millions of dollars have been paid in settlements and the once mighty have fallen in disgrace.
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Thursday, February 01st, 2018
Love and Cybersecurity: Q&A with eHarmony’s Ronald Sarian
Now through Feb. 14 is the busy season for the online dating and matchmaking industry. Heavier traffic can present risks to these sites, demanding added precautions. Ronald Sarian, vice president and general counsel (and default risk manager) ateHarmony spoke to Risk Management Monitor about the types of risks he faces--particularly regarding data and cybersecurity--and how he protects the "#1 trusted dating site for like-minded singles," where "Every day, an average of 438 singles marry a match they found on eHarmony." (For those familiar with its commercials, the song now stuck in your head can be played in a new tab here--don't fight it.)
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Tuesday, January 30th, 2018
62% of Impacted Companies Lacked Hurricane Prep in 2017
A majority of senior executives of large U.S. companies with operations in Texas, Florida or Puerto Rico admit to being unprepared for last year's hurricanes that devastated their communities, according to a survey by FM Global. While 64% of respondents said the hurricanes had an adverse impact on their operations, a full 62% said they were not fully prepared.
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Monday, January 29th, 2018
Competition Steady Despite Disasters, Fitch Says
In its newest annual outlook report for property and casualty insurers, Fitch Ratings noted that while the 2018 rating outlook for insurers is stable, the fundamental forecast remains negative. Underwriting results deteriorated in the second half of 2017 followin gevents including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, along with fourth quarter California wildfires. As a result, Fitch projected that industry-estimated statutory net profits would fall by about 50% in 2017, projecting a market combined ratio of 104.4% for the year compared to 100.7% in 2016.
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Thursday, January 25th, 2018
2020 Visions: Companies Adopt Recycling Initiatives
Decreasing their environmental impact seems to have been a New Year's resolution for many companies and governments in 2018. This month, several major organizations announced ambitious recycling campaigns in an effort to appease consumers, reduce costs and limit environmental harm.
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Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018
Brand perception: 2017 Hurricane Lessons Learned
The 2017 hurricane season has proven to be particularly trying for many businesses, as they worked around maintaining operations during Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate. As a result, many organizations found themselves questioning how to properly adjust policies and practices to mitigate risk and also protect their brand image.
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Monday, January 22nd, 2018
State of Privacy in 2018: Q&A With Richard Purcell
Jan. 28 marks the annual Data Privacy Day (DPD), which was adopted in North America to bring together businesses and private citizens in an effort to share strategies for protecting consumers' private information. Richard Purcell, DPD advisory boardmember and CEO of the Corporate Privacy Group spoke to Risk Management Monitor about the current state of privacy.
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Friday, January 19th, 2018
Calif. Debris Removal Presents Health, Environmental Risks
Last week, Santa Barbara, California suffered 20 casualties, countless injuries and millions of dollars in property damage due to the unprecedented mudslides that tore through the city of Montecito. Search and rescue efforts continue in the aftermath of the phenomenon, which was caused by the heavy rains washing away ground laid bare by the Thomas Fire in December 2017. The resulting millions of pounds of debris left behind present biological and environmental risks to the area. Returning residents have been warned to protect against potentially hazardous chemicals and untreated sewage that were swept along with the mudslide debris. Meanwhile, where all this mud and debris will be moved to presents another dilemma.
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Wednesday, January 17th, 2018
Preparing C-Level Employees to Address Risk
As risks associated with technology and cybersecurity have increased in the last decade, it is more imperative than ever that corporations undertake the proper protocols to protect themselves.
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Tuesday, January 16th, 2018
Annual Data Privacy Day to Focus on Safeguarding Data
Last year was certainly a turning point in the history of online privacy and cyber security. Between ransomware attacks, the Equifax breach and the Federal Communication Commission's vote to repeal net neutrality regulations--just to name a few high-profile incidents in the United States--businesses and citizens have more reasons than ever to safeguard their information.
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Wednesday, January 10th, 2018
Calif. Mudslides Leave 15 Dead
Heavy rains in southern California have caused mudslides in some areas, killing at least 15 people and trapping hundreds. The deluge of mud now covering homes, businesses and freeways are the result of heavy rains washing away ground laid bare by the Thomas Fire--the state's largest wildfire to-date--which burned more than 280,000 acres in December.
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Tuesday, January 09th, 2018
Flu-Related Deaths on the Rise
Frigid weather across the United States and low effectiveness of this year's flu vaccine have been blamed for a jump in the number of flu cases being reported across the country. Epidemiologists in 36 states so far have reported widespread influenza activity to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of those states, 21 reported a high number of cases.
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Monday, January 08th, 2018
P&C Composite Rate Up 2% in Fourth Quarter
Rate adjustments for property and casualty insurance in the United States for fourth quarter 2017 were plus 2% compared to plus 1% in the third quarter of 2017, with automobile and transportation seeing the largest increases, MarketScout reported.
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Thursday, January 04th, 2018
Safe Driving in the Winter ‘Weather Bomb’
The much publicized Weather Bomb, AKA Bomb Cyclone is here in full force. As the storm travels north, much of the northeast is experiencing blinding snowstorms and fierce winds, and states of emergency have been declared in five states. Schools and airports are closed and warnings are in effect for workers to stay home and keep off the roads. Some people must get out and drive, however, and so whether making deliveries, heading to or from work, or running necessary errands, drivers and asked to use heightened caution.
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Wednesday, January 03rd, 2018
Get Ready for the ‘Weather Bomb’
In case you need another reason to dread getting to work this first week of 2018, several weather authorities are warning of a major storm that could affect a majority of the United States with freezing conditions. Storm advisories are being issued from New England states to southeastern winter getaways. Residents of South Carolina, Georgia and even northern Florida should be thinking about stocking up on ground salt, thermal pants and hand warmers.
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Tuesday, January 02nd, 2018
10 Steps to Effective Enterprise Risk Management
Enterprise risk management (ERM) has emerged as a best practice in gaining an overview of strategic, financial and operational threats, and in determining how to mitigate and manage those risks.
A comprehensive approach to risk management is important because it helps management comprehend the true potential of threats and allows organizations to address the cumulative nature of risk.
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Saturday, December 23rd, 2017
Happy Holidays from the Risk Management Monitor
Risk Management magazine and the Risk Management Monitor team wish our readers a very safe and happy holiday!
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Thursday, December 21st, 2017
Proposed Bills Highlight Legal Risks of Sexual Misconduct Claims
In the current climate of sexual harassment incidents being reported in a variety of industries across the country, organizations and their legal departments should be reviewing legislation and considering their legal risks, should they need to defend against sexual harassment or misconduct allegations.
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Tuesday, December 19th, 2017
Latest Amtrak Derailment Could Have Been Prevented
An Amtrak train derailment near Tacoma, Washington on Dec. 18 that killed three passengers and injured about 100 was the result of excessive speed in a steep curve, and could have been prevented with automatic braking technology, according to experts.
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Sunday, December 17th, 2017
Casualties Mount as Calif. Fire Continues to Burn
The massive Thomas Fire in Ventura County has claimed another victim. CalFire Engineer Cory Iverson was killed while battling the blaze, which has so far burned 252,500 acres and destroyed about 1,000 homes and businesses, according to the federal InciWeb fire information website. One other death connected to the fire was a woman killed in a car crash while evacuating.
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Wednesday, December 13th, 2017
More About Santa-Related Risks
Earlier this month, we reviewed how the mere mention of Santa Claus can affect business and finance. Tying his name to a stock market rally or business operation could make values jolly, or the reverse, it could have more of a Freddy Krueger effect. But even if your portfolio and productivity remain unchanged, Santa-related risks can also follow you home and even impact family life.
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Tuesday, December 12th, 2017
Oroville Dam Repairs Concern Calif. Residents
Construction of a new spillway at the Oroville Dam in northern California--the largest dam in the U.S.--is underway and is expected to be completed sometime in 2018, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The dam replaces the previous spillway, which was damaged by heavy flooding in February.
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Thursday, December 07th, 2017
Using ERM to Protect Your Business from The Equifax Fallout
As with many data breaches, the general conclusion of the Equifax attack is that personnel were not aware of the issue beforehand. This conclusion, however, is false.
In early September, I anticipated that a vulnerability in Equifax's software was known ahead of time, and that this scandal was, therefore, entirely preventable. A month later, the NY Times reported that the Department of Homeland Security sent Equifax an alert about a critical vulnerability in their software. Equifax then sent out an internal email requesting its IT department to fix the software, but "an individual did not ensure communication got to the right person to manually patch the application."
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Wednesday, December 06th, 2017
Risk and Crisis Management Explored at Cyber Event
NEW YORK--Cyberattacks and data security need to be high priorities for all businesses, experts stressed at ALM's cyberSecure 2017 event here, Dec. 4 and 5. In fact, not only is failing to prepare for an attack or breach risky, it's foolish, Kathleen McGee, internet & technology bureau chief for the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York said in Monday's opening address. She added that not reporting a breach in a timely fashion has its own set of legal and reputational risks, referring to the SHIELD Act (the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act), introduced to New York State legislature by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in November.
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Tuesday, December 05th, 2017
2017 Storms Break Records
The 2017 hurricane season is finally behind us, but it left its mark with two Category 5 hurricanes and one Category 4 striking within weeks of each other, causing an estimated $300 billion in damage. In fact, 2017 broke records, including the strongest storm--Irma--and the longest-lasting storm, which was Hurricane Harvey. Other natural disasters in 2017 also did their share of damage, including hailstorms and 1,496 tornadoes compared to an average of 1,202.
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Friday, December 01st, 2017
Santa’s Impact on Business and Finance
Just as Santa Claus brings gifts down chimneys, his name alone also carries the stigma of risks that transcend all industries. Indeed, thanks to the logistics of his job we better understand the risks of reindeer-led aviation. But perhaps more importantly, Kris Kringle's presence has long influenced finance and business.
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Wednesday, November 29th, 2017
What Organizations Need to Know about Risk Culture Audits
Today's risks require more proactive oversight by boards of directors on the issue of risk management. Transitioning to this approach is easier said than done, however. The trouble is that many organizations are weighed down by antiquated risk management frameworks that prevent them from being proactive. Even today, how financial services and other industries address risk is deeply ingrained in organizations' character, requiring a broader change which extends beyond simply implementing new risk management frameworks.
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Monday, November 27th, 2017
Awful but Lawful: Attorney Fee Provision Gone Bad
Companies that sign contracts, including renewals, without careful review could be in for an unpleasant surprise if the unexpected happens. For example, extra caution would have saved "Widget Corp." a lot of money and time in its dispute with "Acme Inc."
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Tuesday, November 21st, 2017
Open Offices and Holidays: A Parade of Risks
'Tis the season for many businesses to stay open through the holidays and for some to take part in the tradition of partying or watching a parade warmly from behind office windows. That's why businesses located near public events should inform employees of how their offices will be impacted during the holiday season.
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Thursday, November 16th, 2017
Keeping Parades and Events Safe for Businesses and Employees
Holiday parades will be marching down many U.S. city streets during the next six weeks, with millions of revelers expected to attend. And while these are historically joyous occasions, safety is a top concern for businesses located near the festivities--especially considering the high-profile violence that has recently dominated headlines. Rezwan Ali, risk solutions group head of security at Falck Global Assistance, which advises companies about security, safety and travel risks, spoke about the challenges and best practices faced by businesses and employees located near parade routes.
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Wednesday, November 15th, 2017
Insurance Industry Responds to House Approval of NFIP Renewal
Insurance industry trade groups lauded the U.S. House of Representatives' vote on Nov. 14, reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The 21st Century Flood Reform Act (H.R. 2874) would reauthorize the program for five years and enact operational changes. Advocates from RIMS, the risk management society, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, and SmarterSafer.org also asked that the Senate waste no time in passing its version of the measure before its expiration on Dec. 8.
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Tuesday, November 14th, 2017
Deer Collision Costs on the Rise
Drivers beware: Whether operating a company or personal vehicle, it's that time of the year again--mating season for deer, causing them to be more active and more than doubling the likelihood of a collision through December. What's more, State Farm reports that the national per claim average--from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017--rose to $4,179 from $3,995 during 2015-16.
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Tuesday, November 07th, 2017
High Performance Risk Management
LOS ANGELES--Risk managers, whose job once focused on a basic "bucket of risks," and making decisions about which risks are transferable and which ones the company should retain, have been "migrating along an evolutionary path which is allowing us to be more strategic," Chris Mandel, senior vice president of strategic solutions at Sedgwick, said at the RIMS ERM Conference 2017 here.
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Thursday, November 02nd, 2017
Critical Infrastructure, Security and Resilience Highlighted in November
National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month (CISRM) kicked off on Nov. 1. The month's initiatives address risks such as extreme weather, aging infrastructure, cyber threats and acts of terrorism. Its timing is certainly appropriate, as the effects of recent hurricanes on infrastructures in southern states and Puerto Rico continue to be assessed, as well as Northern California's devastating wildfires and the deadliest shooting massacre in modern U.S. history.
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Wednesday, November 01st, 2017
Coverage, Breaches Highlighted at Advisen Cyber Conference
NEW YORK--Advisen's Cyber Risk Insights Conference, held during Cyber Week, featured risk management professionals and more than 20 panels and sessions on Oct. 26. The keynote was delivered by former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, currently the chair of Greenberg Traurig LLP's Cybersecurity, Privacy and Crisis Management practice. Giuliani used sports analogies to describe the...
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Tuesday, October 31st, 2017
Zombie Risk Management 101
An emerging risk over the past 10 years has been the rise of undead walkers, or "zombies" and their influence on supply chains, natural resources, and mortality rates. These once-alive individuals thrive on human flesh and spread deadly diseases; their exploits have been well documented in California and Georgia for years on basic cable television.
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Thursday, October 26th, 2017
Keeping Halloween Parties Safe in the Workplace
This year, Halloween is expected to be celebrated by a frightening number of Americans - 179 million. According to the National Retail Federation, 48% of adults plan to celebrate in-costume. These 18-year-olds-and-older are not just chaperoning young trick-or-treaters, many are also employees with their own collective sweet tooth. If you plan to indulge these kids-at-heart with a voluntary workplace celebration, here are some tips to consider:
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Tuesday, October 24th, 2017
Protecting Your Company from Rogue Employees
While employee malfeasance rarely takes down entire companies, it can result in serious fines, sanctions, court judgments, settlements and reputational damage. Big data analytics is one way leading companies are able to mitigate risk, by proactively detecting threatening or illegal behavior.
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Monday, October 23rd, 2017
Recovery Plans Critical Following Active Shooter Incidents
October has been mired by mass shootings in the United States. Incidents in which four or more people were shot--the criteria for a mass shooting--have occurred 15 times in the last 18 days. The Oct. 18 occurrence at a business park in Maryland, involving an employee who killed three co-workers on-site and injured two more, has increased the interest in workplace violence and active shooter preparedness plans. As previously reported, only 21% of U.S businesses surveyed felt they were prepared to manage an active shooter situation. And while preventative plans are priorities - and rightfully so - businesses should also consider how to appropriately handle their aftermath.
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Friday, October 20th, 2017
RIMS Legislative Summit 2017: Focus on Flood
WASHINGTON--The RIMS Legislative Summit kicked off on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. with a panel lead by Congressional office staff.
Panelists included: Democratic Staff in the U.S. House of Representatives; Jason Tuber, Senior Advisor to Senator Menendez (D-NJ); Ed Skala, Deputy Staff Director for the House Financial Services Committee; and Brandon Beall, Professional Staff Member, Office of Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; as well as Lisa Peto, chief counsel for the Financial Services Committee
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Thursday, October 19th, 2017
How Small Businesses Can Prepare for the Next Natural Disaster
As we have witnessed these past two months, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria devastated many parts of the south coast and the economies of Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. The damage from the storms is expected to halt U.S. GDP by an entire percent. Recent estimates put the costs of recovery at around $85 billion and $59 billion for Harvey and Irma respectively.
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Wednesday, October 18th, 2017
New Voluntary Hot Air Balloon Safety Program Announced
The Balloon Federation of America (BFA) has instituted new safety accreditation for companies and pilots. The Envelope of Safety program was the result of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) year-long call to action from the commercial hot air balloon industry in response to last year's mid-air accident in Lockhart, Texas which caused 16 fatalities.
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Friday, October 13th, 2017
When Nature’s Wrath Alters Your Business Travel Plans
The recent devastation of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria pulverized Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, displacing hundreds of thousands of residents and racking up billions of dollars in property loss. These massive storms, as well as others, also wreaked havoc on corporate travel, crippling a good portion of the business economy by preventing companies from getting employees to their destinations.
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Thursday, October 12th, 2017
N. Calif. Wildfires Continue Widespread Destruction
The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) increased the National Preparedness Level to 3 today due to wildfire activity in eight Northern California counties, including Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino, where evacuations, road, trail and area closures are in effect. Since their start on the night of Oct. 8, the wildfires in California's wine country have caused 23 deaths and forced more than 20,000 to evacuate, including the entire city of Calistoga. Additionally, hundreds of residents are missing.
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Tuesday, October 10th, 2017
Hurricane Devastation Impacts Health Care Supply Chains
The destruction caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last month has created major disruptions for the island's pharmaceutical product and medical device manufacturing facilities. Days of interruption and damage to manufacturing plants are affecting international supply chains for products such as cancer and HIV treatments, immunosuppressants for patients with organ transplants, and small-volume bags of saline, which are necessary for patients who need intravenous solutions.
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Monday, October 09th, 2017
Words (and Clauses) Matter
A recent report published by RIMS highlights the importance for risk professionals--or the person within the organization tasked with the responsibility--to fully understand the language included in their insurance policies
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Friday, October 06th, 2017
Lawsuits Question Arkema Emergency Preparedness Plan
Last week officials in Harris County, Texas were granted permission to file a lawsuit against international chemical company, Arkema, Inc., in attempt to recover the costs of responding to the crisis at the company's plant in Crosby during Hurricane Harvey in August into September. The County has asked a court to review the plant's environmental practices and disaster preparedness plan and to determine how, if at all, it was updated to reflect the projections of 50-plus inches of rain in the days leading up to Harvey's landfall.
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Monday, October 02nd, 2017
October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month
National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) kicks off this week. And in the wake of last month's Equifax breach announcement--in which nearly 145.5 million Americans learned their personal information may have been compromised, coupled with the government's recent efforts to combat cyber threats--NCSAM's timing could not be better.
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Monday, October 02nd, 2017
8 Legal Developments You Need to Know About
In a new RIMS Professional Report, attorneys Mark Plumer and Xandra Bernardo (of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP) and Patrick Walker, a risk professional at mining company Rio Tinto Group, shed light on the top risk management legal developments of 2017.
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Thursday, September 28th, 2017
Jones Act Waiver Granted for Puerto Rico
A request to temporarily waive the Jones Act for Puerto Rico that was denied on Monday has been approved. President Donald Trump waived shipping restrictions on Thursday to help speed up fuel and supply deliveries to Puerto Rico, devastated by Hurricane Maria, the White House said.
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Tuesday, September 26th, 2017
Community, Diversity Spotlighted at RIMS Canada
TORONTO--The 2017 RIMS Canada Conference quickly found its groove on Monday morning, kicking off the annual conference with performances by a choir of local schoolchildren and an opening session centered on the theme of community.
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Monday, September 25th, 2017
Drive Safely Work Week Campaign Revs Up in October
American workers' safety on the road continues to affect careers and companies. According to the Department of Labor's National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2015, transportation incidents caused that year's most fatal work injuries at a staggering 26%; the 1,264 roadway incidents also marked a 9% rise from 2014. When paired with other sobering statistics--such as positive urine drug testing in the workplace increasing 5% from 2014 to 2015, as previously reported--awareness groups are reacting to combat these statistics.
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Wednesday, September 20th, 2017
Hurricane Debris Removal Costs Climbing
It's difficult to find a photo of Houston, Miami, or any city hit by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma that doesn't contain mountains of debris. As cleanup continues, more trash is piling up everywhere. Cities and towns are faced with a number of issues including costs, expediency, manpower and just what to do with all that trash.
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Tuesday, September 19th, 2017
Hurricane Flooding Impacts Harvests and Supply Chains
The trillions of gallons of water dumped by Hurricane Harvey on Texas and Louisiana and Hurricane Irma in Florida have created major problems for agricultural producers in these states. The damage is expected to affect supply chains in for businesses including grocery chains, restaurants and livestock ranches as massive rainfall and flooding have interrupted harvesting cycles for crops like wheat, rice, corn and citrus fruits. Short-term economic losses are already being estimated, while concerns persist about the storm's long-term effect on crops, soil and machinery.
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Friday, September 15th, 2017
Paying it Forward: Industry Leaders Celebrate at Spencer Gala
Every year in September, leaders in the insurance world celebrate the profession and show their support for the next generation of risk management and insurance professionals. This year, close to 700 executives made their way to the Spencer Educational Foundation's 9th Annual Gala on Thursday night at the New York Hilton Midtown. Nearly $1 million in donations were accepted at the event, a critical fundraising initiative for the Foundation. Proceeds will directly fund grant, scholarship and internship programs for undergraduate and graduate students who are pursuing careers in the field.
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Tuesday, September 12th, 2017
Beware of Fire Ants During Hurricane Cleanup
While Texas, Florida and other states dry out from the trillions of gallons of water dumped by Hurricanes Harvey and Irene, there is much to be done and many hazards to watch out for when clearing trees and removing soggy remains from homes and offices.
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Friday, September 08th, 2017
RIMS Membership Has a Say in COSO’s New ERM Framework
When Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS) members use the new ERM framework published Sept. 6 by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), they may recognize their own ideas prominently displayed. Carol Fox, RIMS vice president of strategic initiatives announced the call for public comment on Risk Management Monitor in June 2016. She said feedback from the industry, and particularly RIMS members, is reflected in COSO's ERM Framework: Integrating with Strategy and Performance.
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Wednesday, September 06th, 2017
Post-Harvey Lessons For Chemical Plant Managers
One of the many hazards exposed by Hurricane Harvey occurred in Crosby, Texas, when the Arkema chemical plant suffered fires and small explosions on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. Floodwaters caused the fires by penetrating the facility and shutting down the cooling systems designed to stabilize 500,000 pounds of highly flammable materials inside. This ultimately caused a mandatory evacuation for all residents within a 1.5-mile radius of the plant. Local news outlets reported that Arkema had no plan in place for six feet of flooding and its last risk assessment was submitted in 2013.
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Friday, September 01st, 2017
Ensuring Your Company’s Disaster Relief Donations Are Well Received
With Hurricane Harvey's effects being felt in Texas and Louisiana for some time to come, businesses may want to help victims by making corporate donations. Corporate decision-makers should carefully consider ways to contribute, since some recent post-disaster efforts have not helped as intended.
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Thursday, August 31st, 2017
Harvey Losses Could Reach $90 Billion
With weeks to go before floodwaters recede in some parts of Texas, Hurricane Harvey--which delivered more than three feet of rain in areas of Houston--has so far caused at least 38 deaths and numerous injuries. Harvey was downgraded to a storm Wednesday night, but tens of thousands of people are still in shelters, some of which are also flooded, fearful of what they will find when they return to their homes.
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Monday, August 28th, 2017
Hurricane Harvey Hits Texas with Up to $30 Billion in Damages
Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall in Texas on Friday night as a Category 4 hurricane, has so far caused at least five deaths and more than a dozen injuries. Now a tropical storm, Harvey has dumped more than 30 inches of rain on the Houston area, with another 15 to 20 inches anticipated by Friday.
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Monday, August 28th, 2017
RIMS Survey Reveals Continued Confidence in Cyber Insurance
Cyber insurance is still a priority for risk professionals and stand-alone policies continue to gain international prominence, according to the 2017 RIMS Cyber Survey.
The survey's 288 respondents represented industries ranging from financial services, government and non-profit and manufacturing to retail, health care and more.
Based on survey insights it is clear that cyber exposure is a primary concern, with nearly half of respondents confirming they are spending more now than they did last year to protect against it. The most alarming elements of risk continue to include business interruption and its consequent expenses, reputational harm, and notification and response costs. In light of recent ransomware attacks, 72% indicated that cyber extortion is also an important and growing first-party exposure their organizations are facing--a 9% increase from 2016.
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Friday, August 25th, 2017
Manufacturers Vulnerable to Cyberrisk
Manufacturing companies face a serious threat from cyber criminals. According to IBM's latest intelligence index, theirs is now the second-most targeted sector, after attack numbers increased significantly year-on-year. This heightened risk is compounded by increased vulnerability: the connectivity that manufacturers have embraced to bring about greater operational efficiencies is accompanied by significant and largely uninsured exposures, such as physical damage arising from cyber incidents or loss of income due to stolen intellectual property.
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Wednesday, August 23rd, 2017
Eclipse Sheds Light On Western Wildfires
Just before American news reporters could excitingly begin covering the total solar eclipse from Oregon on Monday morning, they had to acknowledge the wildfire smoke caught by their cameras. "Wildfire Threatening the View" was one brief TV headline leading into the eclipse's coverage. It was threatening a little more than that.
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Friday, August 18th, 2017
Workplace Safety Tips for the Total Solar Eclipse
On August 21st, a total solar eclipse will be visible from North America for the first time in nearly 40 years. Many employers across the country will host viewing parties or may allow employees to take an extra break to observe the phenomenon, while those who employ outdoor workers can expect employees to have a front-row seat for the big event.
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Thursday, August 17th, 2017
A New Approach to Managing a Classic Reputation
A new Coca-Cola-sponsored contest seems to publicly acknowledge its reputational risk, but at a minimal cost that could manage or even reduce it.
In early August, the beverage giant announced its Sweetener Challenge, seeking non-employees (preferably scientists or agriculture or nutrition professionals) who can bring the company a "natural, safe, reduced, low- or no-calorie compound that generates the taste sensation of sugar when used in beverages and foods." The winner will be announced in Fall 2018 and will receive $1 million.
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Wednesday, August 16th, 2017
Tips for Managing a Hurricane Claim
Despite early predictions of a mild 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, the latest forecasts reflect the likelihood of more named storms than originally anticipated. If that is not ample motivation for risk managers to double-check their hurricane preparation, then the reality that it only takes one major storm to generate a widespread disaster should be sufficient to warrant a review of their claims preparation.
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Monday, August 14th, 2017
Oroville Dam Flood Claims Filed
California residents in the path of water spilled from the Oroville dam in February had until Aug. 11, six months after the incident, to file claims.
The Mercury News reported that Butte County farmer George Onyett, manager of J.E.M. Farms and Chandon Ranch, filed a $15 million claim, saying that after the flooding in February, about 25 acres of walnut trees were washed away by the Feather River. He said that 1% to 2% of the trees in his walnut orchard were lost and that his land is now "irrecoverable."
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Friday, August 11th, 2017
Can You Have Too Many Coffee Shops?
The collective mood among Starbucks (SBUX) shareholders may have been dark and intense on Wednesday, following a 1% downgrade of the coffee company's share price by BMO Capital Markets due to "store overlap." BMO analyst Andrew Strelzik wrote: "There are now 3.6 Starbucks locations within a one-mile radius of the typical Starbucks in the U.S. relative to 3.3 and 3.2 stores in 2014 and 2012 respectively."
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Tuesday, August 08th, 2017
Going Lo-Fi At Sea May Mitigate Cyberrisk
Cyberthreats have become seaborne in recent years, and preventative measures are on the radars of governments and the shipping industry.
GPS and other electronic systems have proven to help ensure safe and accurate navigation, but they have also put digital bullseyes on ship decks. These technology upgrades have unwittingly exposed ships to cyberrisk because their signals are weak enough for remote perpetrators to jam.
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Monday, August 07th, 2017
The ERM Value Connection
Research has shown that enterprise risk management (ERM) adds value. One research paper showed that ERM adds to the value metric called Tobin's Q. Other award-winning research has shown that ERM enables better decision making. The authors of that research state:
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Wednesday, August 02nd, 2017
The Risk of Being Too Delicious
Shockwaves were felt around the wing-eating world last week, when Buffalo Wild Wings announced it will be discontinuing its Tuesday night half-priced wing promotion. According to reports, the franchise's decision was a difficult one as the promotion was "a major driver of traffic" and "boosted same-store sales" for some locations. Ultimately, the deal was just too delicious. With wing prices on the rise (jumping 11 cents per pound in a year), the promotion started to impact the company's bottom line. In fact, the food chain blamed the historically high wing prices for its 63% profit drop in the second quarter, turning the crowd-pleasing promotion into a losing proposition.
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Friday, July 28th, 2017
Companies Must Evolve to Keep Up With Hackers
If you ask a CFO if their company's current cybersecurity strategy is working, it's very likely that they do not know. While at first they may think it is, because the company's bank accounts are untouched, an adversary could be lurking in their network and collecting critical data to later hold for ransom--threatening to destroy it if the money isn't paid. The truth is that many organizations are lacking effective risk management that ensures the integrity and availability of their most essential data.
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Tuesday, July 25th, 2017
Combating Risks to the Electric Grid
Electricity is the foundation of society, making the electric grid one of our most critical infrastructures. It is also one of the most vulnerable, and is subject to a number of variables, according to, Lights Out: The risks of climate and natural disaster-related disruption to the electric grid, a study by students of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and sponsored by Swiss Re.
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Wednesday, July 19th, 2017
Protecting Your Business from Wildfires
There are currently about 60 large wildfires burning in the United States, mostly in western states. But a combination of high temperatures and dry and windy conditions can make wildfires a threat almost anywhere. Adding to the situation is the fact that more and more businesses are expanding into the wildland-urban interface (WUI)--wildfire-prone areas where homes and businesses are located. This creates a growing wildfire risk to businesses, according to the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IIBHS).
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Tuesday, July 18th, 2017
Corporate Culture and Risk Management
According to an April New York Times article, "Uber's core company values included making bold bets, being "obsessed" with the customer, and to "always be hustling." The company emphasized meritocracy, setting employees up as rivals and overlooking transgressions of its high performers. At its worst, Uber maintained an "unrestrained culture" that has since resulted in several allegations of harassment. A published blog post by engineer Susan Fowler, indicated that "the culture was stoked--and even fostered--by those at the top of the company."
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Wednesday, July 12th, 2017
Wildfires Blaze through Western U.S. and Canada
Following a wet spring, at least six western states are now fighting wildfires, which have been intensified by extremely high temperatures, wind gusts and lightning.
In northern California, about 4,000 people evacuated and more than 7,000 were told to prepare to leave as fires burned in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 60 miles north of Sacramento, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
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Monday, July 10th, 2017
Reputational Crises Put CEOs at Risk
When reputational crises hit, market cap, sales, margins and profits are all on the line. And these situations are becoming more frequent--and more costly--than ever, with a recent study showing an increase in losses from reputational attacks increasing by more than 400% in the past five years.
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Thursday, July 06th, 2017
Second Quarter Sees 1% rise in Commercial Lines Rates
Closer attention to underwriting and losses has led to premium increases averaging 1% in the second quarter of 2017, continuing an upward trend this year. The transportation sector, most notably auto-related exposures, is seeing the highest increases, up to 4%, according to a report released today by MarketScout.
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Wednesday, July 05th, 2017
Telemetry Data: What Information Works Best?
Direct measurement of driving behavior, the heart of usage-based insurance (UBI), is the best way to match risk to premium. Insurers offer insurance discounts to safe drivers via UBI in order to acquire and retain the best risks. As a result, safer driving is promoted among these customers, which can amount to savings for organizations insuring drivers.
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Wednesday, June 28th, 2017
Lessons from Distracted Driving Awareness Month
June is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and while it is quickly drawing to a close, the message remains: Distracted driving is escalating, with 25% more vehicle accidents resulting from drivers talking or texting on cellphones. More cars on the road, especially during summer months, also translates to more accidents.
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Monday, June 26th, 2017
Marsh Tracks Top Captive Trends
The number of captive insurers continues to increase globally, from 5,000 in 2006 to more than 7,000 in 2016. Once formed primarily by large companies, the captive market has opened up to mid-size and small businesses. The industry is also seeing a trend in companies forming more than one captive, using them for cyber, political risk and other exposures, according to a recent Marsh report, Captives at the Core: The Foundation of a Risk Financing Strategy.
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Tuesday, June 20th, 2017
Should You Respond to a Reservation of Rights Letter?
An organization buys insurance to transfer certain types of risks (depending on the policies purchased). If a covered event occurs that results in a loss, you submit a claim and get paid. Simple, right? That's how it would seem, but many experienced risk managers know it doesn't always go that smoothly.
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Monday, June 19th, 2017
Record Snowpack Brings Mixed Blessings to California
This year's Sierra Nevada snowpack, one of the largest on record, has brought relief to California, which is still reeling from a five-year drought followed by record flooding. The snowpack is twice its average size, with some areas as deep as 80 feet, according to NASA. But with some rivers and dams still at higher than average levels, the fear is that warm temperatures or heavy rainfall will cause the snows to melt faster and bring more flooding.
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Wednesday, June 14th, 2017
Implementing a Safety Culture for Company Drivers
Organizations with a safety policy in place for drivers of company vehicles may believe they are protected from liability in case of an accident. What they may not realize, however, is their defense could hinge on documentation
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Friday, June 09th, 2017
5 Strategies to Maximize Your Risk Assessments
While risk assessments enable organizations to understand their business issues and identify uncertainties, the best assessments go further. They prioritize top risks, assign risk ownership, and most critically, integrate risk management and accountability into front line business decision-making. Simply put, "checking the boxes" just isn't enough to achieve an organization's real objectives.
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Wednesday, June 07th, 2017
Lloyd’s Plans for Post-Brexit Subsidiary
Just one day after the U.K. set in motion its process for withdrawal from the European Union by triggering Article 50, Lloyd's announced it was establishing a subsidiary in Brussels, intending to be able to write EU business for the Jan. 1, 2019, renewal season.
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Monday, June 05th, 2017
RIMS 2018 Annual Conference & Exhibition
Do you have a great risk management idea or success story that you want to share with 10,000 of your colleagues from around the world?
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Friday, June 02nd, 2017
Preventing Heat Illness: Water, Rest, Shade
With summer comes hot, humid weather and a greater chance of heat-related illness for outdoor workers. How to prevent heat illness? Three words: water, rest and shade, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
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Wednesday, May 31st, 2017
More Insurers Opting to Form EU Subsidiaries
A growing list of insurers are choosing to form subsidiaries in the European Union to ensure continuous coverage for their European clients following the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU in June 2016. They wish to protect themselves in case Brexit impacts their ability to sell insurance policies and products across the EU from bases in Britain.
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Tuesday, May 30th, 2017
Large Venues Reviewing Security Measures
Venues that attract crowds, such as large sports events and concerts are reviewing their security measures, both inside and out, to prevent an attack such as the suicide bombing after an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed at least 22 people.
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Thursday, May 25th, 2017
Fewer Sleepless Nights for Compliance Executives
Improved compliance programs, sufficient resources and board access have meant fewer concerns about personal liability for compliance executives, according to a study by DLA Piper.
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Tuesday, May 23rd, 2017
Workforce Drug Positivity Rate Highest Since 2004
Workforce use of illicit drugs across the board-including cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine-has climbed to the highest rate in 12 years, a study by Quest Diagnostics found.
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Tuesday, May 16th, 2017
North Korea Now Suspected in Ransomware Attack
The massive cyberattack that has struck businesses, government agencies and citizens in more than 150 countries may be tied to hackers affiliated with North Korea. Called WannaCry, the ransomware encrypts the victim's hard drive and demands a ransom of about $300 in the virtual currency bitcoin.
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Thursday, May 11th, 2017
Make Your Hurricane Preparations Now
With the Atlantic hurricane season's official start on June 1, the time to check your buildings and existing contingency plans-or start a new one-is now, during hurricane preparedness week.
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Tuesday, May 09th, 2017
Navigating Risk Management Around the Globe
Over the past few years, I'e had the wonderful opportunity to travel the world and visit factories, distribution centers, ports, warehouses, and several offices for the company where I work. Apart from being a great way to see the world, it has also been an opportunity to learn from the ways different cultures see and manage risk.
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Tuesday, May 09th, 2017
CSUN Students Sponsored by LA RIMS attend RIMS Conference -Philadelphia, PA
Each participating student receives a LA RIMS scholarship of $1,100 to attend this conference.
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Wednesday, May 03rd, 2017
In a Changing World, Questions For the CRO
Before the financial crisis in 2008-2009, many businesses didn't think of risk as something to be proactively managed. After the crisis, however, that paradigm shifted. Companies began perceiving risk management as a way to protect both their reputations and their stakeholders.
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Tuesday, May 02nd, 2017
Ransomware Attacks Increase, With U.S. the Primary Target
Ransomware attacks constituted the greatest cybercrime danger in 2016 as the volume and value of attacks rose sharply, according to a new report from internet security firm Symantec.
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Monday, May 01st, 2017
Total Cost of Risk Drops for Third Straight Year, RIMS Finds
Despite the challenges of a slowed economy in an election year, a shifting risk landscape as a result of technological advances, and a slow to negative growth rate in some sectors, 2016 saw the total cost of risk (TCOR) decline for the third consecutive year, according to the 2017 RIMS Benchmark Survey.
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Tuesday, April 25th, 2017
Disruptive Technologies Present Opportunities for Risk Managers, Study Finds
PHILADELPHIA - Disruptive technologies are used more and more by businesses, but those organizations appear to be unprepared. What's more, companies seem to lack understanding of the technologies and many are not conducting risk assessments, according to the 14th annual Excellence in Risk Management report, released at the RIMS conference here.
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Monday, April 24th, 2017
And the 2017 RIMS Awards Go to…
PHILADELPHIA-At today's RIMS 2017 Awards Luncheon, the society issued its top honors for achievement in the risk management and insurance industry.
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Thursday, April 20th, 2017
GM Halts Venezuela Operations Following Plant Seizure
General Motors has ended its operations in Venezuela after authorities in the strife-torn country seized the company's plant there on Wednesday.
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Monday, April 17th, 2017
It’s a Great Time to Be a Risk Manager
2017 has so far been a wild ride of change. Companies are navigating through a new U.S. administration, Brexit and cyber risks that are more daunting each day. We are bombarded with uncertainty and unchartered waters. Nevertheless, it's a great time to be a risk manager.
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Thursday, April 13th, 2017
Protecting Employees in the Face of International Risks
Increasing globalization and the growing world market presents employees with opportunities to travel and experience new countries and cultures. With travel comes risk, however. In the event of an unforeseen incident, it is an organization's top priority to ensure its employees are safe and out of harm's way.
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Wednesday, April 12th, 2017
Firestorm Over Forced Removal Proves Costly for United
United Airlines stock tumbled nearly 4% in early trading Tuesday morning before recovering late in the day as the company continued to deal with fallout after video surfaced showing a passenger being forcibly dragged from a United flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. United shares were down by as much as 6% in premarket trading Tuesday morning, according to MarketWatch.
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Tuesday, April 11th, 2017
Dallas Alarms Hack a Warning of Infrastructure Vulnerability
Dallas residents were wide awake and in a state of confusion late Friday night when the city’s outdoor emergency system was hacked, causing all of its 156 alarms to blast for an hour-and-a-half until almost 1:30 a.m.
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Thursday, April 06th, 2017
2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook
With the official opening of 2017 Atlantic hurricane season fast approaching, researchers appear cautiously optimistic the relatively quiet streak will continue.
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Wednesday, April 05th, 2017
First Quarter 2017 Sees Upward Rate Movement
U.S. insurance buyers may see higher rates this year, as the composite rate index for commercial accounts increased plus 1% for the first time in 20 months, MarketScout reported today.
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Thursday, March 30th, 2017
Lloyd's to Establish EU Base in Brussels
One day after the UK set in motion its process for withdrawal from the European Union by triggering Article 50, Lloyd's announced that it has chosen Brussels as the location for its European Union subsidiary
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Wednesday, March 29th, 2017
Disaster Losses Climb as Protection Gap Widens: Swiss Re Sigma Study
Global Economic losses from disaster events almost doubled in 2016 to $175 billion from $94 billion in 2015, according to the most recent Sigma Study from the Swiss Re Institute.
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Monday, March 27th, 2017
Accounts Receivables Coverage Helps Fill Supply Chain Gaps
It is standard for companies to insure and protect cash, inventory, property, plants and equipment, and more recently, data. Companies are insuring every step in the supply chain and sales process from concept to delivery. What is often not insured, however, is the last but most important part of a sales transaction-getting paid. You can safely bring your product to market, but if a partner or customer defaults on payment and you have no recourse, you've lost your total investment. Your balance sheet takes the hit.
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Friday, March 24th, 2017
Sears Suppliers Wary as Shares Plummet
Sears Holding Corps' "going concern" filing has vendors and their insurers running for cover as the venerable American department store appears heading for bankruptcy or some other final disposition.
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Thursday, March 23rd, 2017
Increasing Risk Complexity Outpaces ERM Oversight
More organizations are recognizing the value of a structured focus on emerging risks. The number of organizations with a complete enterprise risk management (ERM) program in place has steadily risen from 9% in 2009 to 28% in 2016, according to the N.C. State Poole College of Management's survey "The State of Risk Oversight: An Overview of Enterprise Risk Management Practices."
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Tuesday, March 21st, 2017
8 Steps to Stronger Passwords Enterprise-Wide
Passwords remain one of the most critical security controls widely used to protect and secure company infrastructure and data. While the need for strong passwords has long been discussed, they continue to be the difference between a secure infrastructure and a potential cyber catastrophe.
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Thursday, March 16th, 2017
RIMS Conference Veterans Offer Advice to First Time Attendees
Last week a member of the RIMS Opis online community asked an important question: "What advice can RIMS Annual Conference & Exhibition veterans give to someone attending the show for the first time?" Luckily, the risk management community rushed in with some sage advice.
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Tuesday, March 14th, 2017
Software May Help Oil Companies Determine a Location's Earthquake Potential
New software for monitoring the probability of earthquakes in a targeted location could help energy companies determine where they can operate safely.
The free tool, developed by Stanford University's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, helps operators estimate how much pressure nearby faults can handle before rupturing, by combining three important pieces of information...
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Friday, March 10th, 2017
Food Defense Initiatives Can Safeguard Your Company
When most people think of product contamination and recalls, the first thing that comes to mind is food poisoning cases from bacteria such as e-coli and listeria. Food and drug companies, however, are experiencing malicious and intentional product tampering that can be equally deadly and dangerous. Many of us can't forget the 1982 cyanide Tylenol crisis, Johnson & Johnson's worst nightmare as reported cases of death from their products came pouring in, causing recalls nationwide.
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Wednesday, March 08th, 2017
International Women's Day: Risk Management Issues to Watch
A 2013 piece on the role of women in risk management remains the most controversial article we've ever run in Risk Management magazine and the one that received the most comments and letters to the editor, hands down. Many of those reader comments were...let's just say less than kind or receptive.
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Tuesday, March 07th, 2017
Most Organizations Deny Prevalence of Fraud
At a loss of more than $6 billion annually, experts have found fraud occurs in most organizations, but 80% of respondents to a recent survey by ACL believe their organization has "medium to no" exposure.
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Thursday, March 02nd, 2017
Closing the Vendor Security Gap
What do organizations really know about their relationships with their vendors?
It’s a question that most companies can’t answer, and for many, that lack of knowledge could represent increased risk of a security breach. This year, Bomgar conducted research into vendor security on a global scale, and the findings underscore that much work remains to be done to shore up third-party security.
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Wednesday, March 01st, 2017
Costs Climb as Companies Move to Mitigate Supply Chain Interruptions
Some 70% of companies have experienced at least one supply chain interruption during the past year, with an unplanned IT or telecommunications outage the leading cause, according to the eighth edition of the Business Continuity Institute's (BCI) Supply Chain Resiliency Report, produced in association with Zurich Insurance Group.
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Monday, February 27th, 2017
Falling Trees Can Cause Property Damage, Injury or Death
During and after large storms, especially those with high winds, there are always reports of fallen trees and tree limbs, which can cause injury or death to those who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the past few months in California alone, a woman was killed by a falling tree in the San Francisco Bay area on Jan. 9; another woman was struck and killed by a falling tree while walking on a golf course in the Bay area on Jan. 8; and the mother of a bride was killed when a tree fell on a wedding party in Southern California on Dec. 19. In New York City's Bryant Park, a woman was killed and five people were injured when a massive tree snapped in half on Sept. 4, 2015.
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Friday, February 24th, 2017
Insurance Rate Declines Moderate as Cyber Shines
Global insurance rates declined for the 15th consecutive quarter, remaining competitive for most of 2016, according to the Marsh Global Insurance Market Index, Q4, 2016, which tracks industry data.
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Thursday, February 23rd, 2017
New York Cybersecurity Regs to Take Effect March 1
The state of New York is implementing sweeping new regulations designed to protect insurers, banks and others from the growing wave of electronic security breaches which are making headlines and causing headaches across the financial services industry.
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Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017
Bribery and Corruption: What's the best approach?
On Feb. 17, Samsung empire's heir Lee Jae-yong was arrested on corruption and bribery charges connected to a nationwide political scandal in South Korea. While this is unlikely to directly impact the global tech behemoth in day-to-day matters, it is important to investigate how firms and governments can work together more successfully to combat white collar crime and corruption.
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Friday, February 17th, 2017
10 Lessons Learned from Breach Response Experts
SAN FRANCISCOâ€"As hacking collectives target both the public and private sectors with a wide range of motivations, one thing is clear: Destructive attacks where hackers destroy critical business systems, leak confidential data and hold companies for ransom are on the rise. In a presentation here at the RSA Conference, the nation's largest cybersecurity summit, Charles Carmakal and Robert Wallace, vice president and director, respectively, of cybersecurity firm Mandiant, shared an overview of some of the biggest findings about disruptive attacks from the company's breach response, threat research and forensic investigations work.
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Wednesday, February 15th, 2017
Greenberg, New York State Settle Long-Running Civil Case
One of Wall Street's longest-running dramas closed Feb. 10 as New York State and Maurice "Hank" Greenberg finally ended a legal clash which began in 2005 under the stewardship of then Attorney General Elliot Spitzer.
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Tuesday, February 14th, 2017
Weather Threatens Oroville Dam Emergency Efforts
As measures are taken to repair a damaged spillway at the Oroville Dam in Northern California, weather forecasters are calling for rain later this week. Almost 200,000 people were evacuated from their homes below the dam, the largest in the country, on Feb. 12 as erosion of the dam's emergency spillway threatened to flood the towns below.
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Monday, February 13th, 2017
ILS Roars into 2017 as Maturities Loom
Alternative capital markets continue to see robust activity and at least one major carrier is bullish for the future of insurance-linked securities (ILS), even as the added capacity continues to pressure rates overall.
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Friday, February 10th, 2017
Weighing In on Stand-Up Workstations and Exercise Balls
Stand-up workstations and exercise balls used for sitting in place of an office chair are gaining popularity. This has been fueled by reports of workers at Google, Facebook and other companies trading in their chairs to stand, or bounce, while working. They cite studies of the harm that hours of sitting can do.
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Tuesday, February 07th, 2017
Mitigating Environmental Risks at Argos
Ana Maria Duque is the environmental assessment manager at Argos in Colombia. Here's what she had to say about the environmental challenges her company faces.
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Thursday, February 02nd, 2017
Eliminating Language Barriers Between Information Security and the C-Suite
Whether or not security operations pose a core focus to a company or are an afterthought, the largest obstacle now affecting business and security outcomes is the language barrier that exists between security teams and the C-Suite.
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Tuesday, January 31st, 2017
Delta Outage Spotlights Technology Risks
Delta's computer outage on Jan. 29 was over by midnight, but its effects have extended into the week, not only resulting in 170 cancelations on Sunday, but grounding more than 100 flights on Monday and causing many delays. Adding to the frustration was the fact that the company's mobile apps were also not working.
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Monday, January 30th, 2017
Can ORSA Work For All Businesses?
In addition to impacting the way countless organizations conduct business, the 2008 financial crisis was an awakening for regulators charged with reviewing and setting the rules that shape the way organizations assume risk. Insurance, perhaps the riskiest business of them all, did not go unscathed.
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Friday, January 27th, 2017
Aon Introduces Single-Parent Captive Cyber Insurance Program
With cyberattack listed as one of their top risks, organizations are looking for ways to mitigate their risk in a market where cyber insurance rates are quickly rising. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the annual cost of cyber crime and economic espionage to the world economy runs as high as $445 billion, or about 1% of global income.
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Thursday, January 26th, 2017
Flood, Wind Dominant Natural Hazards in 2016
While most natural hazards occurring in the United States last year saw average or below average activity, the exceptions were flood and wind, according to the CoreLogic report Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis, released today.
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Tuesday, January 24th, 2017
Authorities Examine Hotel Owner's Request for Help Before Italian Avalanche
As the search for survivors at an Italian hotel buried during an avalanche continues, an investigation has been launched into a distress call and emails for help by the hotel's owner. Triggered by a series of earthquakes, the avalanche claimed the lives of at least 14 people, with 15 still missing, according to reports. A staff of eight and 20 guests were reported to have been at the hotel at the time.
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Thursday, January 19th, 2017
Organizational Complexity Poses Critical Cyberrisk
According to a recent survey on IT security infrastructure, 83% of businesses around the world believe they are most at risk because of organizational complexity.
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Wednesday, January 18th, 2017
Fraud Incidents Rise in 2016, Kroll Finds
Reports of fraud have risen in the past year. In fact, incidences of every type of fraud have reached double-digit levels, according to the Kroll Global Fraud & Risk Report 2016/2017. Overall, 82% of executives reported falling victim to at least one instance of fraud in the past year, up from 75% in 2015.
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Thursday, January 12th, 2017
Risk Management Profession Given an 'A' by CNN Money
Risk management is a career that has long flown under the radar. Because it is not a common job choice, a frequent question of risk managers is how they found their way into the profession. Risk managers say they wouldn't do anything else. The reasons they list include interesting duties that differ from day to day, opportunities for creative thinking and problem-solving, and collaboration with other areas in their company.
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Wednesday, January 11th, 2017
Business Interruption Seen as Top Risk Globally
A survey of more than 1,200 risk managers and corporate insurance experts in over 50 countries identified business interruption as the top concern for 2017. According to the sixth annual Allianz Risk Barometer of top business risks, this is the fifth successive year that business interruption has been seen as the biggest risk.
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Friday, January 06th, 2017
Act Now to Prevent Frozen Water Pipes
Freezing weather can bring the unexpected, from slippery sidewalks and ice dams to one of the most common problems--frozen water pipes. Knowing what conditions can cause pipes to freeze is the first step to prevention. If pipes do freeze, a quick response can keep them from bursting, avoiding the expense of replacement, possible water damage to walls, floors and electrical systems, or even a business shutdown.
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Thursday, January 05th, 2017
2016 Ends with 1% Average Rate Reduction
The year ended with few surprises in commercial insurance pricing in the United States, after 2016 started out with a composite rate decrease of 4%. In April, rates began to moderate and continued reductions of 1% to 2% per month. The year closed with a composite rate reduction of 1%, according to MarketScout.
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Tuesday, January 03rd, 2017
Moving Employees Safely is Critical in Oil & Gas Industry
The oil, gas and marine industry has always teetered on the brink of unfortunate circumstances. Oil rigs and oil tankers, by the very nature of their massive size and exposure to the elements, are susceptible to myriad dangers. And when those risks materialize, the safety of the men and women operating these maritime behemoths must take top priority.
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Thursday, December 22nd, 2016
Happy Holidays From the Risk Management Monitor
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Wednesday, December 21st, 2016
Flint Water Investigation Leads to Felony Charges for Mich. State Employees
A driving effort to save the state money was said to be the reasoning behind the Flint, Michigan water crisis, which has been tied to lead poisoning in children, among other issues. On Tuesday the state announced felony charges against former state emergency managers, Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, accused of false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses. The two were said to have been focused on balance sheets rather than the welfare of citizens when they made the decision in 2014 to switch the city's water supply from treated water in Lake Huron to water from the Flint River.
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Monday, December 19th, 2016
Key Steps to a Robust Risk Management Program
Our business environment is constantly changing-technologies improve, regulations are modified, competition increases, and demand evolves. Effective risk management grants an ability to adapt to these changes.
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Monday, December 19th, 2016
Plan Now for the Political and Risk Landscape Ahead
With a new president in office in 2017, there are sure to be changes ahead for businesses in the United States. Yet of risk professionals surveyed, fewer than half are actively preparing. Organizations are expected to see impact in areas including regulation and enforcement strategies, a new national trade policy, and a potential rollback of Affordable Care Act (ACA) provisions, according to Marsh.
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Friday, December 16th, 2016
2016's Worst U.S. 'Judicial Hellholes'
This year's Judicial Hellholes report, published by the American Tort Reform Association, identifies nine "hellholes" in light of changes in the U.S. state court system, the types of cases being seen and the courts' balance between defendants and plaintiffs.
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Wednesday, December 14th, 2016
Annual Report Card Finds Vermont Has the Best Insurance Regulatory System
Examining a matrix of variables affecting a state's insurance regulations, the R Street Institute determined that Vermont has the best regulatory system for insurance and that North Carolina has the worst, according to the Insurance Regulation Report Card.
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Monday, December 12th, 2016
Driver Data: Advances in Innovative Exchange
With an innovation worthy of the digital age, the field of vehicle telematics is bringing auto manufacturers and insurance companies into sharper alignment. Now, data recorded in an individual vehicle can be "crunched" to yield insights about driving behavior-insights that can shed light on a driver's risk category. In a further innovation, 2016 brought the establishment of a telematics data exchange, enabling risk managers to make use of this data with the consent of drivers.
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Thursday, December 08th, 2016
Lloyd's Finds Extreme Weather Can Be Accurately Modeled Independently
In a new report based on research from UK national weather service the Met Office, Lloyd's has found that extreme weather events may be modeled independently. While extreme weather can be related to events within a region, these perils are not significant correlated with perils in other regions of the world.
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Wednesday, December 07th, 2016
Fed Program Initiates Life-Saving Training for Shootings, Terror Attacks
The length of time victims wounded in school shootings and terror attacks must wait for help from an EMT could be minutes or hours--during which time they could bleed to death. This has happened in a number of cases, including a shooting at an Orlando nightclub in June, when a woman bled to death while waiting for help to arrive.
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Monday, December 05th, 2016
November Composite Rate -1%, Up From -2% in October
The November composite rate for insurers in the United States moved from minus 2% to minus 1% in November, with commercial insurance seeing the largest increases, according to MarketScout.
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Wednesday, November 30th, 2016
Recap of 2016 Weather Events
The 2016 hurricane season, which ends today, has been the deadliest since 2005 and the most active and costliest since 2012. In all there were 15 named storms and seven hurricanes, three of them major hurricanes. Hurricane Matthew, a Category 5, was responsible for more than 1,600 deaths and insured loss estimates of about $7 billion.
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Tuesday, November 29th, 2016
Building a Successful ERM Program
Corporation (KPC) and its subsidiaries since 2004. She is the team leader, coordinator and project manager for the ERM program and its strategic implementation across the Kuwait oil sector. Al-Gharabally, a speaker at RIMS' Middle East Risk Forum 2016, taking place Dec. 13 and 14 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, discusses the implementation strategies and successes of KPC's ERM program.
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Monday, November 28th, 2016
Retail Data Security: Preparing for the Top Threat for Holiday Breaches
Here's the question of the season: What is the true cause of the retail breaches we read about year after year? While malware or ransomware may get most of the scary security press, they aren't in fact the main culprit. The primary cause of most retail breaches is, by far, stolen credentials. These are the usernames and passwords of employees, contractors or partners of a retail firm. Victim firms such as Target Corp., Home Depot, eBay and others have fallen prey to similar attacks in recent years: a trusted insider's credentials were stolen and hackers used those to access the network. In some cases, the credentialed access led to the installation of malware on card reader systems, while in others, hackers took different paths.
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Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016
Wells Fargo: What Should Have Happened
When Wells Fargo fired 5,300 employees in September for inappropriate sales practices, then-CEO John Stumpf approached the scandal with an outdated playbook. In response to the $185 million in fines levied by regulators, he first denied any knowledge of the illegitimate accounts. Attempting to mitigate press fallout by distancing the company from a group of "bad eggs" acting independently is not the answer, however. Even if Stumpf had maintained this assertion of innocence, changes in the risk environment over the past few years demand a proactive approach.
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Monday, November 21st, 2016
Establishing Company Gift-Giving Guidelines
With increased regulatory oversight around the globe, companies' external and internal gift-giving are under scrutiny. With the holiday season upon us, it is up to organizations, no matter what the size, to clearly state policies and leave no question about what is and what is not allowed. Establishing monetary limits for gifts given and received is also a good idea.
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Thursday, November 17th, 2016
Best Practices for Protecting Against Fraud
In 1987, during arms control negotiations between the United States and the USSR, President Ronald Reagan popularized the phrase "trust but verify." The maxim is pithy and oft-quoted, but for companies looking to mitigate risk and financial fraud, it should be reworded slightly to "Verify and monitor continuously."
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Wednesday, November 16th, 2016
Creating a Strong Defense and Offense in Your Risk Management Program
Stakeholders demand that companies grow, but at the same time, they expect growth to be managed to make sure the brand is not tarnished. That means enabling value as well as protecting value, which comes down to striking the appropriate balance between risk agility and risk resiliency.
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Thursday, November 10th, 2016
Charting the Rise of Ransomware
At the beginning of the year, Risk Management put ransomware at the top of the list when surveying the 2016 cyberrisk threat landscape, and these attacks have arguably come to the fore as cyberthreat of the year, whether you measure by buzz or by increase in incidents.
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Tuesday, November 30th, -0001
New Fatigue Reports Awaken Employers to Injury Risks
The National Safety Council (NSC) estimates that roughly 13 percent of workplace injuries are attributable to sleep problems, causing an economic impact of $400 billion. NSC information suggests that employers with 1,000 employees could incur losses of more than $1 million per year in missed workdays, lower productivity and increased healthcare due to employee fatigue.
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Tuesday, November 30th, -0001
Data Breach Risk: What’s Next?
Ten years ago, many companies didn't even ask about using encryption to protect data. Over the years, that has changed. More security and privacy professionals began to see it as an option in their cybersecurity defense. Then it eventually became a necessary component of most companies' security strategies and the use of encrypted laptops became a condition precedent for many cyber and private insurance policies.
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Tuesday, November 30th, -0001
New Voluntary Hot Air Balloon Safety Program Announced
The Balloon Federation of America (BFA) has instituted new safety accreditation for companies and pilots. The Envelope of Safety program was the result of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) year-long call to action from the commercial hot air balloon industry in response to last year's mid-air accident in Lockhart, Texas which caused 16 fatalities.
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