In The Press

To Blockchain or Not to Blockchain

01.05.2018

Insurance Industry

By now you must have heard of blockchain and cryptocurrency creating the buzz of the moment.

There are many articles on the internet currently raving about what Blockchain is and how it could potentially disrupt the world as we know it. This article is not about that but rather about the reason we as a company (MIC Global), have made the decision to use blockchain and why we see it as important for our customers.

Back in the mid to late 1990’s, a few early adopters got excited by this new buzz called the internet, a risky concept that was at the time either being laughed at, or simply ignored. A very few of those early adopters scraped through, promising to re-invent whole new industries and have managed to do so, becoming the new companies that we now look up to. By 2010, it was no longer a question as all saw the point and joined the bandwagon, and as we know the rest is history.

So, is blockchain the new buzz to consider for our future? What is the big deal about blockchain? For now, we know that basically it changes the rules of how things use to be and is posed to disrupt industries, just as the internet did.

The real question now is this; what is so important about Blockchain and why do we need to pay attention?

There is an old adage about how on the internet nobody truly knows who is really behind a profile but with Blockchain, that is all about to change! Yay for online dating or padding out your life on Facebook or enhancing your LinkedIn profile.

The issue has always been about trust. How do you trust anyone, or even worse how do you know that you can trust these platforms? To TRUST something today is difficult; there are many businesses and processes built to exploit us. Platforms making %’s on the actual service or process you want or those they make sure you need. You pay, and this cost is built into the systems and products you use. These ‘real trusted’ relationships all must be paid and defended.

Just like selling books online was initially rejected by the traditional industry 20 years ago, many institutions today are very sceptical about Blockchain replacing their value. These are the intermediaries (banks, brokers, lawyers, consultants, etc) who are there to guarantee this real-world trust.

Blockchain aims to virtualise this. It is like the internet was aiming to do back in late 1990’s to shopping. There are now some who are starting to experiment with this new digital technology to defend or build new ‘central’ control and management systems.

Why are they starting this now?

Recent technology waves, e.g. the Internet of Things and the proliferation of smart mobile devices, have all gone global and have given digital attributes to the physical things, i.e. door bells, thermostats, location, motion. This is reminiscent of the spread of broadband that finally kicked off the growth of sales and social on the internet in the early to mid-2000’s.

This digitisation of ‘things’ directly endows physical objects with information and intelligence making the physical virtual. Conversely, because of the Blockchain’s in-built immutability, the data that is generated becomes ‘real’ – it collects physical attributes.

This allows us to consider new products and services, generating a whole new value chain with trust built in and removing the cost and friction of working through the old world of layers of centralised institutions and intermediaries of trust.

No wonder that 2017 saw a big switch with leading institutions and even governments building real applications using blockchain. In India, SBI and 27 other banks joined hands to form BankChain to enable smart contracts and store KYC details. American Express and Santander has partnered with Ripple to enable real-time cross-border transactions. Estonia wants to become the first digital nation with its own cryptocurrency.

In The Press

AI and the Insurance Industry: Is It a Threat or an Opportunity?

12.16.2017

AI

I hear every day of Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups that are or about to revolutionise this business or that. Today, for example, I was reading about “robot investigators” being widely used to examine documents in complex Serious Fraud Office (SFO) cases. Normally the SFO would use around 30 lawyers over many weeks for a case. Using an algorithm instead, the SFO said it took a tenth of the time to sift through this very complex case and, as bonus, the SFO reported that the algorithm is much more accurate.

Does this mean 100’s of lawyers will be out of a job? That AI will take all our jobs? Possibly.

I take a different view of this new technology when I think of the future, and I use the game of Chess as an example.

IBM’s Deep Blue computer won its first game against a world champion in 1996, in that match Deep Blue whilst it won a match it was overall defeated by a score of 4–2. Over the next year Deep Blue was upgraded, and played again in 1997. Deep Blue won the six-game rematch 3½–2½ and became the first computer system to defeat a reigning world champion.

Recently AlphaZero, the game-playing AI created by Google sibling DeepMind, beat the world’s best chess-playing computer program, having taught itself how to play in under four hours!

So, chess is over right – I mean what’s the point?

Obviously, this is not true, chess is still a great game and more people can play chess on phones and other devises, both learning the game and pitting themselves against chess software. Tournaments are held where Chess Masters, each with computers, do battle in games that are every bit as close and exciting as they ever were. It’s just that the humans have been upgraded, a kind of chess cyborg that elevates even novice players to greatness.

Using this as a template we can return to the use of AI for business. I believe that AI will change nearly every job and wipe out some along the way. It will also create jobs, enabling businesses to become far more insightful and smart and customer facing that ever before. Products, service and insight like never before will be available and delivered at a cost that today we cannot imagine.

Looking at my industry, insurance, data has always been at its heart but poorly used. Data is traditionally split, rekeyed and divided as the customer’s policy is processed through agents, wholesalers, brokers, underwriters, reinsurance, claims and on and on.

Today, there is an ability to create and uncover insights at speed, in real time, and this is pulling process, data and information together. AI and machine learning is and will be used in many ways – the insurance cyborg is coming our way! This is critical for shared economy insurance to work.

This is a BIG win for customers and where they will notice the most is around customer service. Insurance is known to be one of, if not the worst industry when it comes to Customer Service, so it won’t be too hard to be impressive!

What will customers notice? The successful new insurance companies and intermediaries will focus on instant customization, instant claims payments, more frequent relevant touch points to the customer and transactional short-term event based policies that customers will be demanding to meet their event based work and leisure lifestyles.

AI will allow the industry to move away from the constraints of the product and focus on service and doing what insurance is all about – managing risk and paying claims when certain conditions are met, all at a reasonable and understandable cost.

In The Press

Cyber Security – Has Anything Really Changed?

11.20.2017

Cyber Security

When the founders of MIC Global first met in 1999 they were focused on understanding the emerging cyber threats that were starting to swirl around the internet and internet based businesses. They became busy building insurance products to help businesses manage these risks.

Since then they have seen the sophistication and number of attacks grow massively with numbers of affected accounts per attack grow to staggering levels. Back in 2000 it would have been almost unbelievable that a single attack could affect over 3 Billion accounts as the 2013 Yahoo case has now finally highlighted. It is also still hard to understand why it took Yahoo so long actually discover the attack. They are meant to have employed the best brains after all.

However, if we look at how our homes and businesses have changed over the past 20 years perhaps we can start to understand this. These changes have drifted into our lives through small incremental steps that have almost gone un-noticed and yet have managed to deliver mind boggling change. How can we or anyone keep up?

Is this the underlying issue that we don’t deal with, keeping up with these small changes and never adding up the true impact?

The sum total of these changes today has completely turned upside down and inside out the way many people run their lives and how small businesses communicate and do business.

We Google everything; Facebook our lives; Uber ourselves home; Stay on airbeds in stranger’s homes; You Tube anything; WhatsApp instead of phoning; Open Online accounts for everything from banking to accountancy to TV to car hire, Have Virtual Assistance for all things useful that we have hired a person for in 1999; Booking a cleaner online and being worried about every review; As for cars, Self-driving cars and trucks are here. The list is endless, and people say its only just started.

Today, as in 1999, we are being asked to ‘Trust’ these new companies as they build the new economies around us. However, the levels of security the companies offer us don’t seem to have changed much.

When we read the scary reports about cyber-attacks nothing much changes in terms of the advice we are given about what we are meant to do to secure our online world; Strong Passwords; Back up everything; Anti-virus software; Firewalls. And finally, Don’t Clink on a Link Unless You Know Where its From – TRUST Nothing, yet trust the new company?

This was the advice 20 years ago and it’s not changed despite everything about the internet getting more complicated and its penetration into our lives going exponential.

Why has nothing seemed to have changed?

A recent survey by Netwrix pointed to the most common reason people and businesses are not so sure about their ability to combat information security threats, these being 1. Lack of budget 2. Lack of time 3. Insufficient training. Or, in other words, we are only human, and we are the weakest link, we are the ones who do nothing.

But if businesses do nothing then, as we hear every day, the consequences can be catastrophic, not just for your business but also for the people you do business for and with.

In The Press

Freelance and GIG Economy

11.14.2017

Gig Economy Sharing Economy

The world of employment is always changing, however today there is an acceleration towards people looking after their own hours and becoming more flexible. The sharing and gig economy is here and we are providing sharing economy insurance around these new businesses.

Two large surveys have been undertaken in the UK and USA about the Freelance or GIG economy, apparently it’s preferred now to call it the Freelance Economy, both surveys released earlier this year, 2017.

Freelancing in America Survey by the Freelancers Union and the giant freelance platform Upwork.
Good GiGs Survey By The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

The surveys show that freelancing continues and stunningly suggests that by 2027 a majority of U.S. workers will be freelancing. UK freelancing is to growing apace with many peer to peer platforms driving this change and access. This is a great opportunity for development of new services such as insurance.

The current mix of work being undertaken by the freelancers is:

Professional, creative or administrative services 59% of workers
Skilled manual or personal services 33% of workers
Driving and delivery services 16% of workers

The growth in technology platforms has made it easier to find work and to present yourself or your business as a freelancer. Platforms such as Upwork, People Per Hour, AirBnB, Uber easily come to mind but these are just a few of the many new platforms available.

While freelancing is a part-time or side gig for many respondents, a growing number are making a living freelancing. In the US, 29% of freelance respondents said their businesses are their sole source of income. That percentage rose by from 17% in 2014. The main drivers for full-time freelancers, the survey found, are freedom and flexibility. The demand for this type of work has accelerated over the last few years and shows little sign of slowing down. The UK survey found that young people (aged 16-30) are particularly attracted to the idea of freelance work – one in four said they would consider some form of it in future. Given this enormous potential for growth its time now to think of how platforms can become a catalyst for fair, fulfilling work in the modern labour market. There are challenges as to how to respond to the impact of freelance work.

There are views camps forming; One view is that government and business should be actively encouraging innovation and supporting platforms to scale. These people are the champions of platforms as progressive and liberating, highlighting workers newfound freedom and flexibility; The other view is that companies and government must keep standards, and thus be active when it comes to the practices and processes of platforms using self-employed workers, the fear is a race to the bottom in terms of pay and conditions.

Another view is that there is a middle ground, again lead by markets and companies that want to protect and manage their risk. The companies will lobby for change in employment and standards. These changes will again lead to updates in how local authorities and governments act. The platforms need to keep both the customer and the professional (the freelancer) happy, they need BOTH parties to be there. The freelancer has as much choice as the customer. It puts the difficulties of regulation into perspective; since there is no universal experience within the gig economy, government must carefully weigh many trade-offs for workers in deciding whether to intervene and, if so, in what way.

Insurance is the traditional way to protect against employment and business issues and over the many years the industry has developed products to protect both employees and businesses alike. The industry is intertwined with employment and commercial regulation and law and their products are distributed and bound in the old and outdated practices of the insurance industry.

Today the focus of the industry is still on the annual policy, renewal books, bundled policies and manual claims processes. Technology is not a strong suit of the industry. The industry is changing on the fringes and there are start-ups and partnerships forming to improve its technology and financial performance and to face up to the revolution that is taking place in the platform businesses.

Reference

Freelancing in America Survey by the Freelancers Union and the giant freelance platform Upwork.
Good GiGs Survey By The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

In The Press

Cyber Security – Small Things Make a Big Difference

11.11.2017

Cyber Security

Things we can and should do.

Avoid Ransomware – this is a type of malware put on your computers by hackers. It is then used to encrypt all of your computer or smartphone data. The hackers then threaten to destroy your data unless you pay a ransom. Your computers are effectively locked. The Hackers ask you to pay and once they have the money ‘promise’ to unlock your computers. Ransomware is used against companies, government agencies and individuals, so all of us face this threat. Simple mitigation can be :
- Never click on any link in an email or text message unless you have absolutely confirmed that it is legitimate, this includes adverts and any other links
- Backup all of your data regularly via the cloud or on an external hard drive, or both!
- Keep your security software up to date with the latest security patches
Passwords – Use strong, unique passwords for all your accounts and dual-factor authentication whenever possible.
Routers and Other Devices. Many people do not change default passwords to routers or other internet of thing devices. This is a must as soon as you install any device. It is also to consider how the devices are managed, many people and businesses don’t need the devices to be managed from outside the local area network (LAN) so they should be limited so not to be accessed via the internet. If remote access if required use secure and encrypted virtual private network (VPN) to gain access first.
Smartphones – the same applies! Use Pin and Password to lock the phone when not in use. Refrain from using public WiFi for sensitive communication. Don’t store sensitive data on your phone.

These are just a few of the things you can easily do to increase your cyber security. It’s time to make yourself aware, maybe use Google to find out the best approach for you and your business!

In The Press

To Blockchain or Not to Blockchain

Let’s Grow Together

In The Press

AI and the Insurance Industry: Is It a Threat or an Opportunity?

Let’s Grow Together

In The Press

Cyber Security – Has Anything Really Changed?

Let’s Grow Together

Let’s Grow Together

In The Press

Cyber Security – Small Things Make a Big Difference

Let’s Grow Together