NAPEO
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As you might expect with cybersecurity, battlelines are being drawn between the people creating AI solutions to help protect companies and the people making AI software that is designed to find vulnerabilities in areas designed to protect data; systems; financial and personal information; intellectual property (IP); and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and other IoT devices.
As you might expect with cybersecurity, battlelines are being drawn between the people creating AI solutions to help protect companies and the people making AI software that is designed to find vulnerabilities in areas designed to protect data; systems; financial and personal information; intellectual property (IP); and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and other IoT devices.
Experts have written articles for decades urging companies to update their business with cutting-edge technologies. By now, you may have been lulled to sleep by such headlines, content with your current processes and an “if it’s not broke” mindset. You may even be convinced that recent technological advancements like artificial intelligence (AI) are just a fad or something to ignore. However, given the exponential rate at which new cutting-edge technology is transforming every industry – including the PEO industry – you and your business no longer have the luxury of complacency.
You might think your PEO and most of your customers don’t need a workplace policy covering artificial intelligence (AI). After all, you and your customers might not have an internal AI product for workers to use, and not all your customers are in the tech space. But employees across all industries are intensely AI-curious and are wondering whether ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and other similar platforms can help them at work. With this inevitable use comes some serious legal risks for your PEO and your customers. An AI policy can reduce some of the risk. What are the top 10 reasons why you and your customers need an AI policy?
Paul Nash is an employment practices liability (EPL) underwriter with Beazley. He is the EPL and Safeguard product leader for both the UK and US teams and was instrumental in developing the first SAM/SML policy issued by Beazley in 2006. He has more than 30 years of experience in the insurance. He recently spoke with Paul Hughes of Libertate Insurance about the state of the EPLI market, how he has seen the PEO industry evolve and more. PEO Insider captured their conversation.
When it comes to signing up new employer groups in your PEO’s health insurance pool, collecting questionnaires has always been a sticking point. Today’s clients are like any other consumers; they demand seamless and nearly instant purchase experiences.
Cybersecurity is an essential aspect of business operations, which is why it cannot be viewed as the sole responsibility of the IT department. Cybersecurity threats evolve daily and organizations can best prepare and protect themselves by taking a shared responsibility to protect the company’s assets and data.
One of the questions I’m frequently asked by PEOs is simple: Is the cloud safe? Actually, this is a trickier question than it seems. The answer is yes, of course, but like any internet-based endeavor, there are certainly many caveats. Cloud security requires you to think about security differently than on-premise security or data center security.
Every business faces different challenges whether from competitors, market changes, supply chain disruptions, or myriad external or internal forces. Yet every business, regardless of size or industry, faces a common threat: the security of critical data. Whether it’s the leak of proprietary business information or customer data, or a breach, or a malicious software attack, it can be devastating. Security incidents result in disruption, fines and a loss in customer confidence that can take years to recover.
We all have locks and alarms on our homes, businesses, and vehicles. None of us would think about leaving our property unguarded. Why would you take the chance with your digital property? So, what can PEOs do internally to help secure the vulnerable areas of their business? As IT Manager at ESI, I have the task of guarding the gates of ESI through various techniques. Hopefully, by sharing some of these techniques, we will add some nuggets to your cybersecurity protocol.
Disasters are inevitable, and their timing is unpredictable. Preparing your company and employees before disaster strikes can make the difference between a catastrophe or an inconvenience. While no one wants to experience a business disruption, especially any technology-related disruption, there are many reasons that you could end up in that position.
The exposure of being an employer is dynamic and untenable for a small employer, which is why PEOs are so crucial to businesses. While core PEO responsibilities such as payroll, procurement of workers’ compensation, and human resources are foundational value propositions to assist employers, in addition to these areas what makes one PEO more attractive than another in the selection process? What is the biggest problem to solve for your client company? Maybe it’s safety. Usually, the area where they lack the most understanding and support is in cyber defense. Every client of yours is a sitting duck for a hacker and you can help.
As chief information security officer at PrismHR, Dwayne Smith leads the company’s cybersecurity efforts. He works to strengthen cyber defenses, and guard vital information from internal and external threats. A vast and evolving field, cybersecurity requires constant vigilance, training, and adaptation. Smith may be a relative newcomer to the PEO industry, but his background boasts impressive cyber credentials from service in the United States Navy, consulting with government agencies, and leading cybersecurity efforts for Cummins, Inc., a large multinational company.
As someone who has spent the past 20-plus years studying cybersecurity and supporting commercial, defense and intelligence organizations, I joined the PEO space earlier this year because I saw an opportunity to help this industry improve its cyber protections. Doing so is vital to help protect them and the small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that make up the lion’s share of companies.
One area where we serve our clients is by providing technology, but are our technology offerings up to par? Has our technology kept up with our workforce? Where are we stuck? Where are we falling short? How do we create the change we need to walk the electronic walk? And how inclusive, really, is our technology? For those of us who’ve participated in annual goal setting meetings, we’re familiar with the intentionally weird moniker big hairy audacious goal or BHAG. I prefer a slightly smoother approach: functional, all-inclusive, and benefits all or FAB. Are your PEO’s technological offerings FAB?
Crisis communication is a large part of that response plan. It includes the collection, organization, and dissemination of timely and factual information to mitigate the impact of a crisis. It’s the dialogue between your PEO, your clients, and respective stakeholders before, during, and after an incident. Effective crisis communication planning takes the confusion and panic out of a crisis and replaces it with accurate, clear information and reassures that help is on the way.
To better protect your business against cyberattacks, you should be aware of the common cyberattack trends that can put your business at significant risk and best practices to protect to implement.
It is accepted as common wisdom that technology improves the work environment, streamlines processes and workflows, and makes a workplace more productive with diminishing costs over time.However, until relatively recently, there has not been much data to quantify or qualify that conclusion.
Long gone are the days when changes to the business climate were easily foreseeable and gave us plenty of time to plan and respond. Pandemics, wars, and competition from new market players are just a few recent trends that make managing your business more complicated than ever.
In upcoming articles in this series, we will cover some of the different types of hacks and hacktivism that are most common today in greater detail. And while each of these different types have specific preventative and reactionary steps that should be taken, there are some measures that are universal regardless of the type of attack and resulting outcome of them. For example, if it is an email that contains links or attachments that you don’t recognize then don’t click on anything. Deleting the email immediately is the safest option. If you get an email from someone and the wording doesn’t seem consistent with previous interactions, then don’t just take it at face value. Contact the sender in a different email or phone call and confirm what you are seeing is legitimate before you do anything else.
With the recent rise of cybercrimes, PEOs, like many businesses, must now recognize that data security in cyberspace and in their own systems is of the utmost importance for the safety of not only themselves but also for their clients.
PEOs are in the business of offering robust human resources services to their customers and off-loading the responsibilities involved to a team of professionals who know how to manage employee information safely. Customers need help to make sure they keep sensitive information safe and secure. To address the legal obligations companies have when handling employee information, PEOs evaluate the information they handle and the legal obligations regarding data security imposed for handling such information, making sure they introduce cybersecurity measures early and reinforce them often.
While there is not an exact definition of cyber hygiene, I summarize it as a set of formal and habitual practices that ensure the safe handling of critical data and securing networks. Cyber hygiene must be institutionalized, as any weak link can cause issues to all on a given network or distribution. It is a communal exposure that needs to be addressed in a communal manner.
