Covid-19 motivated us think about cloud tech-infra services: Naseem Halder, CISO, Acko General Insurance Limited

Naseem Halder

Technology that has always been an important part of the insurance industry, gained greater significance post the outbreak of the pandemic. On one hand, the challenges are posing a threat to the health and wellbeing; on the other hand, it is helping the leaders to restrategize their tech-based initiatives to ensure resilience. Elets News Network (ENN) recently spoke to Naseem Halder, Chief Information Security Officer at Acko General Insurance Limited to understand the emerging role of cloud tech-infra services, insutechs amid the pandemic and how CIOs are striking the balance between tech deployment and security simultaneously.

I believe every company needs to be technology-oriented irrespective of their domain. Else their survival would be at stake. With the collaboration of insurtech, all insurance companies would have an additional edge to reach their customers would be able to provide a better insuring experience and manage their underwriting risks as well.

Also Read: 5 Things to Consider Before Purchasing a Health Insurance Policy

Industries across the globe are impacted by the covid-19 outbreak. How did it impact the information security segment of the insurance sector in India?

Every organization and business have their own way to run the show, therefore the impact in the information security domain in the insurance sector may vary by organization. The impact mostly depends upon your technology stacks, for e.g., if an organization is fully hosted over cloud infra and enough information security controls are implemented to manage the remote work scenario, then the impact will be less to that organization. This outbreak forced all CISOs to think about the adoption of cloud tech-infra services.

What role did the pandemic play in accelerating the cybersecurity strategies of the insurance sector in India?

The pandemic changed the business equations and also opened up a huge number of known and unknown risks. Increasing cyber-attacks were also observed around the globe. Cybersecurity strategies have to fulfil the requirements of business and protect the interests of organisations. Regardless of industries, everyone needs to improvise on their existing cybersecurity strategies to enable secure remote work. Covid-19 outbreak forced us to fast-track the digital transformation initiatives, however, I believe there is still a long way to go.

How is collaborative leadership helping the sector in ensuring hassle-free operations and product delivery?

I believe collaborative leadership is a great approach. Diverse teams comprising different experiences and viewpoints would add additional attributes towards contextual intelligence, horizontal leadership and better visibility of risk. Overall, it would accelerate the quality in operations and delivery.

How significant are the insurtechs for the insurance industry now? Is it high time to collaborate with them?

Considering the current business equations, I believe every company needs to be technology-oriented irrespective of their domain. Else their survival would be at stake. With the collaboration of insurtech, all insurance companies would have an additional edge to reach their customers, would be able to provide a better insuring experience and manage their underwriting risks as well. Additionally, they would have an edge on data modelling and as a result their customers will get customized insurance products at a better cost. This will be a win-win situation for both customer and the org.

Also Read: Always read policy fine print for travels post-Covid: Biresh Giri, CRO, Acko General Insurance

Would you like to tell us about the leading-edge technologies that will be benefiting the sector lately? How pivotal are CISOs in ensuring the relevant deployment of technology?

Nowadays, business equations are changing rapidly and today’s digital business synergies have opened up unknown risks. Implementation of cutting-edge security solution (such as SASE, ZTA, CASB, Next- AV) will definitely provide better visibility of dataflow and its management but to solve it from the core and protect your crown jewels, I believe along with the cutting-edge solutions, we have to build a data-security oriented culture and encourage the employees to be an active feeder to this culture. I believe CISOs pivotal role is to help identify the new challenges or risks. Once the problem is identified correctly, it will be easy to deploy the digital solutions around it.

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