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As with any business, agricultural producers face risks of all kinds....are in the cost of the program * Agricultural producers are personally respon...

Cyber and workforce risks rising concern for U.S. businesses. ...While not quite making the cut of top risks, concern over geopolitical conflic...

Pollution and environmental exposure risks on site and during transfer and dispo...ate, their exposures to environmental risks. Combining risk management with a ...

...across your business. 1. Evaluate risks. To understand how to create a safer ...he opportunity to prevent or mitigate risks. - Identify solutions and resourc...

Most medium-sized and smaller companies protect themselves against their property and liability exposures by purchasing Commercial insurance, while large corporations and government agencies prefer to use some type of alternative risk financing. However, businesses of any size can employ this tool to enjoy such benefits as improved cash flow and a lower total cost of risk. Insurers have developed a number of colorful terms for alternative risk financing techniques. These methods include: Excess insurance Reinsurance Guaranteed cost Retrospective rating Large deductible Self-insurance Captive insurance Using alternative risk financing requires management discipline and a willingness to commit resources. Size isn't that important. The main criterion is losses. As a rule of thumb, alternative risk financing makes sense for a business whose claims have these characteristics: (1) Reasonable predictability; (2) moderate volatility; (3) minimal exposure to a catastrophic event; and (4) high frequency and low severity. For example, a large hotel or bank would probably experience a number of small Workers Compensation claims, but few large claims. Casualty insurance products (such as Workers Comp, General Liability, and Auto Liability) are the best candidates for alternative risk financing. Because Comp and Liability claims tend to be paid over one to five years or more, insurance companies that write these policies generate substantial investment income on their premium reserves until losses are paid fully. By using alternative risk financing, your company can invest your funds elsewhere, rather than paying premiums. Our specialists would be happy to review your business and see if alternative risk financing make sense for you.

When businesses consider Intellectual Property management, they often think about protecting their own assets, in the form of copyrighted material, trademarks, patents and trade secrets. But businesses also need to ensure that they are managing the IP rights of others, according to Kirstin Simonson, a Segment Lead in Global Technology at Travelers. “This is especially true in the technology sector, which faces some of the most complex IP issues,” says Simonson. One common violation of intellectual property is software copyright infringement. A common scenario may include a company that purchases software licensing rights for 400 employees, and then fails to update the licensing for an additional 100 employees later added to staff. According to a BSA Global Software Survey, they found that 43% of the software installed on personal computers in 2013 was not licensed.¹ Why Businesses Need an IP Risk Management Program The survey also reported that only 35% of companies have written policies requiring the use of properly licensed software. It also found that there is an awareness gap about software policies between workers and IT managers. Appropriately ensuring the rights of others is an important part of risk management for your organization because IP, in all of its forms, is a critical business asset. Companies need an IP Risk Management plan because: They may face legal action for copyright infringement and other IP violations. They may have to perform an intensive software audit to prove they have resolved the problem. Use of unlicensed software may put the business at risk for data breaches, data loss or other forms of information security and network security threats. Laws protecting IP can vary greatly around the world, so it is important to understand which ones apply to your business. What to Include in an IP Risk Management Program “Like all risk management, a good IP Risk Management Program needs to be proactive and comprehensive from an enterprise perspective,” says Simonson. “Consider IP rights management as a tool for growth, and not something to consider once the product is out to market.” An IP rights management program should include: The ability to track licensing relationships and royalty obligations. Companies should consider some form of automated tracking to ensure they are not only managing their own IP rights that are licensed to others, but they are living up to the licensing agreements they have in place with third parties. Formal clearance procedure and registration strategy. Engaging legal counsel to perform an IP search may be appropriate in many instances or at the very least, determining whether there are automated tools that can assist in the process. Having a well-defined strategy for determining whether title is clear to the IP, whether it should be registered and how to maintain the registration. Contracting and licensing agreements should include appropriate provisions. Whether it is a work-for-hire arrangement where the IP rights would be assigned to the business or a licensing agreement to use the IP, it is critically important these be spelled out and managed. Response plan or dispute resolution plan in the event someone challenges your IP rights. Just like any peril or loss a business may face, whether it is hurricane, liability allegations arising out of the failure of the product, or a cyber event – a strong response plan when an event happens will save hours and dollars. Education of all employees of what constitutes IP and how their misuse or mishandling can put the company at risk. Train everyone in the company so they understand how they might put the business at risk. Download the White Paper on How to Protect and Maximize Your Company's Intellectual Property > Get Technology Resources that Can Help You Turn Risk into a Business Advantage > ¹ http://globalstudy.bsa.org/2013/

... protect your business against the risks you face at a price you can afford, y...

Mobile devices are the mighty double-edged swords of today's workplace. On the one hand, they provide greater integration of information, on the other, they could be your business's one-way ticket to a catastrophic security breach. This week we had the amazing opportunity to speak with Anthony Kinney, Microsoft's Verizon Partner Manager, about mobile security and the ways to mitigate data risk in a BYOD environment. According to Kinney, the three main security risk areas associated with BYOD are: Data loss prevention, which has to do with securing the data on a device in the case of it being lost or stolen. Data in transit, which is most often protected by encrypting information to ensure that all communications between the device and backend infrastructure are secure. Data leakage, which is about keeping a user's work and personal information separate. In other words, "protecting users from themselves." We asked Kinney what Microsoft is doing to make sure that moving to a pocket office doesn't mean introducing security risk. He discussed how our multilayered approach to security makes adopting a BYOD policy far less of a risk, with solutions like Secure boot technology, remote "wipe" capabilities, and automatic cloud storage (among other security solutions). What makes the greatest difference, however, are the actions a company takes to ensure that their data is secure. The way Kinney sees it, employees jailbreaking and rooting devices is one of the largest risk factors for companies who allow employees to BYOD. What those companies do is implement third-party services to "containerize the data," so it never actually goes onto the local device. According to Kinney, Windows Phone solves for this by protecting the data at the data center level before it even gets to the device. This means each document can have specific edit/view/share settings so that when it's accessed on a mobile device it can't be 'saved as' or forwarded to another cloud service, depending on what the settings permit. This way the phone fully understands the corporate policies on the document, helping IT to provide security—even at the file level. This level of device integration with your data allows your company to consider a BYOD or CYOD policy without the need for third-party security solutions—which themselves offer another point of potential failure and risk. By working with your existing desktop OS, email, and other systems, the native Windows Phone OS helps mitigate data loss risk for your pocket office by preventing it in the first place.

Mobile devices are the mighty double-edged swords of today's workplace. On the one hand, they provide greater integration of information, on the other, they could be your business's one-way ticket to a catastrophic security breach. This week we had the amazing opportunity to speak with Anthony Kinney, Microsoft's Verizon Partner Manager, about mobile security and the ways to mitigate data risk in a BYOD environment. According to Kinney, the three main security risk areas associated with BYOD are: Data loss prevention, which has to do with securing the data on a device in the case of it being lost or stolen. Data in transit, which is most often protected by encrypting information to ensure that all communications between the device and backend infrastructure are secure. Data leakage, which is about keeping a user's work and personal information separate. In other words, "protecting users from themselves." We asked Kinney what Microsoft is doing to make sure that moving to a pocket office doesn't mean introducing security risk. He discussed how our multilayered approach to security makes adopting a BYOD policy far less of a risk, with solutions like Secure boot technology, remote "wipe" capabilities, and automatic cloud storage (among other security solutions). What makes the greatest difference, however, are the actions a company takes to ensure that their data is secure. The way Kinney sees it, employees jailbreaking and rooting devices is one of the largest risk factors for companies who allow employees to BYOD. What those companies do is implement third-party services to "containerize the data," so it never actually goes onto the local device. According to Kinney, Windows Phone solves for this by protecting the data at the data center level before it even gets to the device. This means each document can have specific edit/view/share settings so that when it's accessed on a mobile device it can't be 'saved as' or forwarded to another cloud service, depending on what the settings permit. This way the phone fully understands the corporate policies on the document, helping IT to provide security—even at the file level. This level of device integration with your data allows your company to consider a BYOD or CYOD policy without the need for third-party security solutions—which themselves offer another point of potential failure and risk. By working with your existing desktop OS, email, and other systems, the native Windows Phone OS helps mitigate data loss risk for your pocket office by preventing it in the first place.

Here are some featured markets we thought you might be interested in taking advantage of: