September 2014 42 Bermuda:Re/insurance+ILS


With the number and scope of cyber attacks on the rise, reinsurers would do well to consider their network security systems. Richard Munday addresses the options and possible solutions to the rising tide of attacks.


The importance of sound network security


Logic Communications


To inform the organisation if someone got past the firewall, a ‘honey pot’ was created. Basically, it was a trap that would deflect and detect attempts to circumvent the SPI firewall. Usually a server was cordoned off from the rest of the network with information that would look enticing to attackers.


I Not surprisingly, criminals have adapted since then, and with the


proliferation of online shopping and the vast amounts of credit card data available, they have become very sophisticated.


Criminal organisations now use botnets, which are hundreds of millions of computers around the world that are remotely controlled


n the telecoms industry 20 years ago, things were fairly simple. To keep your systems safe, the best defence was to install a stateful packet inspection (SPI) firewall, to always patch your systems and to implement an aggressive password policy.


by various ‘bot herders’ and rented to the highest bidder. These botnet communities are responsible for almost all cyber-criminal and cyber- terrorism activity globally and the owners of these computers are unaware that anything is out of place.


On July 15, 2014, Joseph Demarest, assistant director of the cyber division of the FBI, in a statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism stated, “According to industry estimates, botnets have caused over $9 billion in losses to US victims and over $110 billion in losses globally. Approximately 500 million computers are infected globally each year, translating into 18 victims per second.”


Data breaches cost companies billions of dollars globally each year.


They occur as a result of malicious or criminal attacks, computer glitches, poor software development practices, business process failure and human error. These failures can impact a company in many


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