Experience as a CISO - Part 2 - Compliance Requirements in an Insurance Firm



As described above the key areas which are for a insurance CISO are Information Security, Business Continuity, Data Protection and Governance , Audits and Compliance. In this blog I will explain the requirement from a Compliance perspective.

 The key compliance requirement for a CISO in an Indian insurance firm are the 

  1. IRDAI Cyber Security Guidelines, 
  2. ISNP ( Insurance Self Network Platform ) Guidelines - Which are applicable for the E Commerce platform to sell insurance policies online 
  3. IT Act 
  4. Aadhaar Act 
The key compliance requirement is the IRDAI Cyber Security Guidelines which were released by IRDAI ( Insurance Regulator in India ) for all insurance companies.  The guidelines consist of two documents - one the main document and second is Annex A which has 307 controls against which an external audit has to be done annually by a CERT - IN empanelled auditor. 

My view on any compliance is that it should be seen as tool to improve security rather than a tool to force security measures on the organisation and its employees. However there are times when organisations which are not risk-centric and do not have a correct approach on security threats and protection. In such circumstances it is useful to drive certain implementations.

Another additional factor in ensuring compliance is to have a good understanding of IT infrastructure and applications including architecture, deployment , exposure and type of data stored. For eg the most critical data for an insurance firm is Customer PII data. 

In the next post I will cover our approach to achieving compliance to IRDAI regulations . 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

API Security - A risk based approach for CISOs

       APIs or Application Programming Interfaces are the building blocks of modern applications. As the usage of APIs  and API traffic increases it is likely to be the major attack vector for hackers. APIs are utilised for a variety of purposes such as - share data with partners, customers, and other third parties. As per Akamai, 83 % of internet traffic is driven by APis. While APIs are a powerful enabler of digital transformation, they also present new security challenges. In fact, Gartner predicts that in 2023, API abuses will be the most frequent attack vector. To substantiate that prediction, OWASP has come out with a separate OWASP Top 10 for APIs in 2019. Also multiple organisations such as Coinbase and IRCTC have been affected by API security vulnerabilities in their applications.  To tackle this emerging attack vector, CISOs should understand the key risks associated with APIs. These include: Data Breaches or Data Leakages -  Risk of data le...
Read more

2024 Year Review and thoughts

  My review of 2024.  The year was a mixed bag with a overall positive outlook and a few hiccups. My ratings on key parameters  Health - Average  Family - Good  Professional - Good  Career - Good  Finances - Average  Health -  My health has been a mixed bag with several notable improvements and some setbacks. Exercise - I was able to regularly attend Gym and do strength training.  Due to improved leg strength I was able to run a 10 k run in Dec in a time of 67 mins . I was 40th out of 120 runners in the Veteran category which I am satisfied with keeping in mind the several issues I had been having at the start of the year.  Gut Health : My stomach and gut issues continued which led me to a take a nutritionist led meal plan. This has helped but I still continue to have gas and loose motions intermittently  and outside food does not suit me at all. The worry is that my weight has reduced from 68 Kg to 63 Kg in las...
Read more

Key Steps for Building an Effective Data Protection Program: From Analysing Business Needs to Ongoing Protection

Key Steps for Building an Effective Data Protection Program: From Analysing Business Needs to Ongoing Protection In today's world, data is often referred to as the new oil, given its immense value to organisations. Companies have access to vast amounts of data, from customer information to intellectual property and strategic plans.  Over the last decade cyber criminals have targeted organisations repeatedly related to multiple breaches. Some organisations like Uber have faced multiple breaches and even government organisations are not spared as we observed in the Snowden case where confidential data of US  govt was leaked online. Protecting this data has become essential, and having an effective data protection program is crucial to achieving this requirement.  In my role as a CISO for the last five years I have found data protection as the most complex initiative yet most closely related to business enablement. This can be related to protecting customer data to prevent c...
Read more