Why is Cyber Insurance a Necessity in Today's Web World?

Cyber Insurance – Rising Threat to Cyber Security

An awareness regarding cyber insurance should be brought about owing to the rising threat to cyber security. The increasing threat with attacks like WannaCry rising in numbers together with the higher dependency on the web has given rise to the need for another support in the insurance segment namely cyber insurance.

The purpose of obtaining your online business or data insured has been an unfamiliar concept to several people. With various insurance companies available offering package connected to cyber insurances the idea for the same has not yet started. We have overseas insurance companies who have been providing cyber insurance keeping their focus on advent of tech companies.

 However in India, the scenario tends to be different. The MD and CEO of Future Generali Insurance, KG Krishnamoorthy Rao has commented that `it is a comparatively new concept particularly in markets here. Abroad the same has been prevailing for three-four years. However as more and more transaction tends to occur online, especially financial, incidents of cyber fraud seem to be on the rise.

Cyber terrorism is also a new threat where people tend to extort others online with threats that their data will be destroyed if the ransom amount is not paid. He further added that even if an awareness of cyber insurance is not familiar, it needs to be known and then there will be a market for the same.

Transacting Online – Information not Misused/Leaked

Krisnamoorthy’s company is awaiting approval for the launch of their cyber insurance package for the people. The other markets too are in agreement that the awareness could be important to this problem. Shupoorna Chakarabarty from ACP-India First Life Insurance had informed that most companies had not taken up this policy so far and it is critical that when one is transacting online, their information is not misused or leaked.

 It is often the banking sector or payment wallets which tend to need cyber insurance urgently. Though the loss owing to a cyber-attack is unavoidable, it could certainly be reimbursed. The cyber insurance offers a number of safety nets on any online business. Rao informed about some of the damages which tend to be covered within cyber insurance.

He informed that economic loss suffered by a client due to cyber-attack could be eligible for insurance and the insurance company is accountable in making up for the loss incurred. Moreover the transmission of data due to an e-threat, where the data tends to get destroyed is also covered by the policy. Another significant aspect is when the data is lost, the expenses in restoring the data is covered by the insurance agent.

Expert Intervention Needed

Though there are not several challenges while handling cyber insurance, Rao has mentioned that expert intervention was needed in handling these cases. He further added that when a client tends to claim a loss or damage, a cyber-security expert is essential in verifying the same.

The damages may not be easy to determine and tends to take a longer time. The issue prevailing so far is that in India, several of the people are yet not aware that they can claim this. He says that in India, we have not yet evolved to a point that we can sue a company stating that my information has been leaked.

Tips for Protecting Your Farm from Unnecessary Risks

If you run a farm, then odds are good that you've experienced the unpredictable nature of the profession. Whether crops are ruined because of poor weather, or you've had difficulty with managing the health of your livestock, there are many things that can go wrong in the day-to-day operation of a farm. Despite its reputation for difficulty though, there are actually a few tips that can help you get a better handle on your farm and protect your business from undue or unnecessary hardships. With that in mind, here's a look at some of the best tips for protecting your farm.

Protect Yourself With Insurance 

Insurance can be a powerful tool for many different areas of life, but it's especially important for farmers. Insurance companies like Ark Agency regularly offer farmers the opportunity to get equine and livestock insurance in order to protect themselves from any issues following an accident involving their cattle or other livestock. Given how crucial these animals can be to the success of a farm, if something unexpected happens to them, it can leave you without any other potential recourse. With that in mind, there are a variety of different livestock insurance policies out there, which can be tailored to your specific needs and circumstances. If you have highly valuable livestock, and haven't gotten an insurance policy for them yet, then now might be the time to do so.

Use Environmentally Safe Chemicals 

While everyone continues to debate on the reality of climate change, the truth is that farmers should still be trying to use environmentally safe chemicals above all else because it also has a direct effect on themselves. Studies have linked specific chemicals to health issues in farmers who regularly handle them, and it's worth noting that similar effects can also take hold in animals. If you regularly use pesticides and other chemicals on your farm, but aren't sure of their effects, then you might want to start doing your research. If you can find an similar, but more environmentally friendly, chemical, then you might want to consider making the switch.

Although these tips can't fully protect you from unexpected accidents while on the farm, they can at least keep your prepared in the event of one. No one wants to see all of their hard work get wasted due to a simple mistake, or an unexpected event, so these tips should give you the best chance of avoiding them. As always, hard work and determination can help you overcome anything, but it doesn't hurt to have a little help as well.

Machine Learning Promises to Shake Up Large Swathes of Finance

Machine-Learning – Compliance/Risk Management/Prevention of Fraud

Machine-learning has been enhancing in fields right from trading to credit assessment to fraud prevention. It has begun shaking up finance wherein a subset of artificial intelligence –AI tends to excel in locating patterns as well as making forecasts, which it utilised in preserving the technology firms. Towards 2019, those seeking to aspire being a `chartered financial analyst’ or desire distinction in the industry would be requiring, AI proficiency in order to be successful in his exams.

 Machine-learning, regardless of the uncertainty of several inclusive of some `quant’ hedge funds which tend to specialise in algorithm based trading, is said to be poised in having great impact. New fintech firms together with some quick officials have begun applying the system to everything right from scam protection to discovering new trading policies, capable of up-end not only of the labour of the back office but also the more honest glamorous stuff.

 Machine learning has already been utilised for task like compliance, risk management as well as the prevention of fraud. A British firm known as `Voice’, tends to sell machine-learning driven speech transcription tool to huge banks in order to monitor the phone calls of traders for any indications of wrongdoing lime an insider trading.

Near Actual Tracking – Risk Disclosure

The other specialist such as Xcelerit or Kinetica seem to provide the banks as well as investment firms with near actual tracking of any risk disclosures enabling them to display their capital needs constantly. Machine-learning tends to surpass in noticing strange patterns of operation that may display fraud. Start-ups firm such as Feedzai – for payments, or Shift Technology – for insurance to behemoths like IBM have been providing these services and some have been developing the skills internally.

A British banking start-up – Monzo had built a model, swift enough for stopping the would-be fraudster from implementation of a transaction thus bringing down the fraud rate on its pre-paid cards in June 2016 from 0.85% to less than 0.1% by January 2017. The natural-language processing wherein AI-based system have been released on text, has begun to have a great effect in document-heavy portions of finance.

JPMorgan Chase, in June 2016, had organized software which can scrutinize through 12,000 commercial-loan contracts within seconds in comparison to the 360,000 hours the lawyers and loan officers tends to utilise in reviewing the contracts.

Automated Financial Decision

Besides this, machine-learning is also said to be good for automated financial decision irrespective of assessing credit worthiness or eligibility for an insurance policy. Zest Finance being in business of automated credit-scoring right from its foundation in 2009 had earlier in the year rolled out a machine-learning underwriting tool to support lenders in making credit decisions as well as for people with little conventional credit-scoring information.

It tends to scrutinize through huge amount of data like the payment history of people or how they seem to interact with the website of lenders. A tech savvy insurance start-up, Lemonade, has been utilising machine-learning to sell insurance policies as well as to manage claims. The latest boundary for machine-learning probably is in trading wherein it is utilised to bite on market data and also to select and trade portfolios of securities.

At Goldman Sachs, the quantitative-investment strategies division tend to utilise language processing motivated by machine-learning in order to go through thousands of analyst’s reports on the companies. Here it complies an aggregate `sentiment score’, depending on balance of positive to negative words. Goldman had also invested in Kensho which is a start-up utilising machine-learning in predicting how events such as natural disasters tend to affect market prices centred on data on similar events.

Restricted Useful Applications

A Toronto-based upstart, Castle Ridge Asset Management has attained annual average returns of 32% since its establishment in 2013. It tends to utilise a cultured machine-learning method such as those used in modelling evolutionary biology in making investment decisions. The chief executive, Adrian de Valois-Franklin, claims that it is very sensitive that it picked up 24 acquisitions before they had even been announced.

On the other hand, Man AHL, which is a well-established $18.8bn quant fund provider, had been conducting research in machine-learning for the purpose of trading since 2009 as well as utilising it as one of the techniques in managing client money since 2014. Martin Lueck of Aspect Capital seems to find the system exaggerated stating that his firm had observed only restricted useful applications for the same. However in other fields machine-learning has the possibilities of game-changing and there is no reason in expecting finance to be changed.

 As per a machine-learning fund manager, Jonathan Masci of Quantenstein, years of work on rules-based approaches in computer vision, telling a computer on how to recognize a nose for instant were instantly eclipsed in 2012 by machine-learning processes which enabled computers to `learn’ what a noses looked like from examining millions of nasal pin-ups.

Likewise a machine- learning procedure, according to Mr Masci has to beat conventional trading strategies depending on rules set by humans.

How will GST Impact the Indian Real Estate Sector

Impact of The Goods & Service Tax - GST 

The most ground-breaking tax connected reforms in some decades to be seen in India is the Goods and Service Tax – GST that will eradicate the incompatible as well as mounting taxation arrangements which have confused various industries over the last few decades.

 It would positively tend to have a deep effect on the economic prospects of India. An individual indirect tax covering the goods and services would tend to increased tax collection in the long run by making it simple for retailers together with many other businesses in complying as well as regulating the overall taxation stages. The favourable outcome of this new taxation administration would only become apparent within 2-3 years after its implementation.

 In spite of the announcement of the tax structure of the goods and services tax – GST, a lot of speculation would be there with regards to tax rate being applicable to the real estate as well as construction industry. It would be untimely to comment at this point of time since the tax rate has not yet been decided. Prospects for the real estate would be in the bracket of 12% but the GST rate does not seem to be the only significant element.

GST – Tax Neutral/Tad Adverse

It is a known fact that real estate sector tends to play a vital part in employment generation in India and ranks second after agriculture. The significance of real estate segment is comprehended with its average 5-6% GDP contribution as well as stimulating demand for over 250 subsidiary industries.

The real estate segment is said to have a considerable growth of about 22% in its private equity reserves from 2015 to 2016. During the third quarter of 2016, there was an increase of 9% in investments for residential properties from previous quarter.

The reduction rules for developers applicable under service tax system together with the input tax credit facility would be determined if the effective tax incidence on real estate would be lower or higher under GST. Meritoriously the composition system enables reduction against the cost of land up to 75% of the cost of the house for residential units at a price under I crores IND and less than 2000 sq.ft. tends to make the effective rate at 3,75%.The reduction in other cases seems to go below 70% thus making the effective rate at 4% which will go a long way in defining whether GST would be tax neutral or tax adverse in the case of real estate.

Uncertainties to Rental Housing Market

Some clarity on reduction for under construction houses as well as input tax credit benefit for developers has been offered by the government. Considering the residential property sector, the sales have not only been obstructed by tax rates but also by sentiment as well as on account of the trust deficit that the Real Estate Regulation & Development Act or RERA, it now seeks to report. Under GST, if cost tends to go higher, the lower prevailing current home loan rates to some extent could ease the impact.

Investors and buyers together with the developers are reasonably anxious that the final ticket size of the homes would escalate if the Government levies GST at 12% as against the prevailing service tax rates. Further clarity on this is anticipated by the developers though they are aware that it is in the interest of their business in keeping ticket sizes range-bound.

Developing market dynamics have already made a change in a way the developers tend to work. Other uncertainties relate to the rental housing market that would logically be the obstructed if the Government tend to tax residential leases under GST.

Rental Profit/Capital Value Appreciation

The common anxiety is that should this occur, the rental housing segment would see a big slump over the medium-term as residential leases are not taxed at all presently. It is appropriate to note that the residential leasing could be an essential demand that would not disappear just by increased taxes.

 Undoubtedly, we could be viewing at rental lack of progress or marginal decline while the market readapts to the new dynamics that GST would permeate. Rental housing demand however tends to be sticky and end-user-driven in nature. Hence we are certainly not watching for major slump in this sector due to GST even if it does not tend to tax residential leases.

Nonetheless it is true that most of the investors in the residential segment do not tend to invest for rental profit but for capital value appreciation and so reduced rental profits would not freely control sentiment. With regards to the impact of GST on the commercial office real estate market, with the prevailing service tax for commercial leases at 15%, GST overall would be probably neutral.

Presently reasonably priced housing has been exempted from service tax and it is possible that the government would come out with a clarification with regards to the applicability or tend to continue the exemption under the GST.

How Can I Enhance My Company's Conversion Rates?

One of the business owner's primary concerns is determining how to optimize the company's conversion rates. If you're currently thinking about strategies you can implement to enhance your organization's bottom line, it's important to remember that there are hundreds of options available to you. Here are three of them:

1. Utilize Consulting Services.

One of the best ways to improve your company's conversion rates is by utilizing business consulting services. These services will ensure that you have a team of business experts carefully analyzing every element of your company to ensure that it is functioning optimally. Any errors detected will be corrected so that your organization can maximize efficiency. Once this happens, you can expect to see a substantive increase in your conversion rates. Companies such as Predictive Service are pleased to offer clients dynamic reliability consulting services to keep their organizations going and growing.

2. Invest In Digital Marketing Services.

In addition to utilizing consulting services, make sure that you start investing in digital marketing services. This step is immensely important because we now live in a digital world. Given that people are now using mobile devices and PCs to shop and purchase items online, you want to be able to connect and convert people through the internet sphere. Some of the digital advertising services that may prove particularly beneficial for your organization include:

• web design and development

• social media optimization

• online reputation management

• search engine optimization

• blog work

Another digital advertising service that can be particularly beneficial for your organization is content marketing. This service is empowering because it ensures that all of your online content is innovative, information-rich, and engaging. Some forms of online content that you'll want to optimize include blog posts, web articles, and videos.

3. Implement Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software.

One final conversion rate optimization technique that you may want to implement is the use of CRM software. This software helps your sales and marketing staff optimize interactions with customers, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will make purchases and be loyal to your brand. For example, CRM software enables your employees to keep detailed records of each conversation they have with clients as well as the purchases made by the customer. This information will help them market new products more effectively!

Don't Delay: Start Optimizing Conversion Today!

There are millions of things you can do to increase your company's bottom line. Three conversion optimization strategies you may want to consider implementing include utilizing consulting services, investing in digital marketing services, and implementing CRM software!