Insurance Agent Commissions Hacked

Hackers have discovered how easy it is to find our your insurance agent ID (and we know they already can get your Social Security number from many sources on the web) and submit a change form to the insurance carriers.

Hackers submit their bank account information (it’s gonna be in a foreign country without repercussions) so your monthly EFT flows into their account. Sure, you will receive an email verification that you intend to change your account information on file with the company — but will you read that email? Will your administrative staff catch this?

Talk To Your Staff About Data Security And Phishing Annually

Agency owners rely on their administrative staff to verify that the organization is running smoothly so they can go out and sell more business. But are you alerting your staff to this risk? Hackers go after and succeed in breaking into the big fish like United Airlines, Anthem and TJMaxx. Why would they go after you? Because it is so easy.

Make It Harder For Hackers To Get Your Money

We all complain that many carrier sites require us to change our passwords every 90 days. The rule is meant to help us, protect our account and not inconvenience us. We fight back against the “suggested passwords” that are difficult to remember. We use simple-to-hack passwords and when we are forced to change them, we make the new one as similar to the old one as possible. According to Tracesecurity, 81% of data breaches are due to poor passwords.

This is both funny and sad, check out the most popular passwords around the world and see if you have one on the list below. According to a January 2019 study, 51% of respondents reuse the same password with multiple sites! Guilty as charged and so was every person in my office who I informally surveyed. We universally hate trying to remember “hard” passwords.

Passwords that are shared around your office are a liability! A better practice is to limit the number of people with access to your passwords. Change all passwords when any key staff leave. And as much as you have heard this many times before — you need to use better passwords!

Insurance offices are under attack all the time and losing money is much easier than making money. Now at the start of a new year is the perfect time to go over these threats with your staff.

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Sylvia Gordon is the president of Gordonmarketing.com. Together with her sister, Rebecca Gordon, they train and support thousands of independent insurance agents across the nation. You can reach her at 800–388–8342 or sgordon@gordonmarketing.com.