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Broker Earns Taiwan’s First Approval for Online Insurance Sales Thanks to Forcepoint Security

In order to comply with leading-edge data privacy laws and stay ahead in the competitive Taiwan insurance market, Law Insurance Broker turned to an integrated security solution from Forcepoint.

Industry

Financial Services

Headquarters

Taiwan

To compete in the Taiwan insurance industry, Law Insurance Broker puts a relentless focus on customer service and data protection. In order to meet personally identifiable information (PII) regulations and also stay ahead of the industry, the company combined Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention, Web Security, and Next Generation Firewall to create an industry-leading data security and compliance solution—strong enough to garner the first government approval to issue insurance online.

Challenges

  • Keep client and insurer personal healthcare and finance information safe and secure.
  • Comply with Taiwan regulations and stay at the forefront of data privacy best practices.

Approach

  • Implement Forcepoint DLP, Web Security, and NGFW.

Results

  • Law became first insurer in Taiwan approved to offer online insurance.

Taiwan has the highest insurance coverage rate in the world, with each person paying an average US$4,998 in premiums per year. Competition among brokers is fierce and any edge can mean significantly more revenue.

The country is also a frontrunner in another area: data privacy. Its Personal Data Protection Act provides strict, comprehensive guidelines for protecting both public and private sector data. The Act sets a high bar for any financial services company that wanted to conduct transactions online.

Founded in 1985, Law Insurance Broker is committed to data security. “We not only comply with relevant laws and regulations, but also hope to achieve full compliance even before the promulgation and enforcement of such laws and regulation,” noted Johnny Shen, Vice President of Law’s Information Management Division. With Forcepoint’s help, the company’s rigorous approach to data privacy allowed it to stay ahead of the competition by becoming the first Taiwanese broker allowed to issue insurance policies over the internet.

Staying ahead of regulations and the industry

Law belongs to China United Insurance Service (CUIS) Inc., whose subsidiaries also include Law Anhou Insurance Agency in Mainland China and Prime Financial Asia Limited in Hong Kong. The company’s more than 2,000 professional practitioners offer insurance from multiple companies while helping customers find the best insurance solutions for their needs. Law emphasizes a long-term commitment to its clients: “Every insurance policy sold to a client means ensuing service for fifty years,” said Yi-Hsiao Mao, founder of Law Insurance Broker.

As digitization became the industry norm, the firm saw customer service expand to include keeping client and insurer personal healthcare and finance information safe and secure. Although the company was lucky enough to never experience breaches or data leaks, it did need to implement a data loss prevention solution—not only to comply with Taiwan regulations, but also stay at the forefront of data privacy best practices.

The company also wanted to better protect data when employees use web sites and cloud apps such as Google Drive and web email, while blocking access to dangerous and inappropriate sites. Existing anti-virus tools could no longer meet business growth needs, and the clean-up required after an infection simply increased management burdens. Finally, as the company’s existing firewalls were coming to the end of their maintenance contracts, Law wanted to take the opportunity to explore firewall options that could better meet their needs.

Quick rollout due to pre-set policies and integration

For many years, Forcepoint has had a reputation as the top data loss prevention (DLP) vendor in the Taiwan market. So, when Law wanted to revamp its cybersecurity posture, Forcepoint was a natural first choice. In addition, Forcepoint’s experience implementing DLP in the Taiwan financial services industry would help the broker fine-tune policies for its industry and deploy the system very quickly.

Law especially valued Forcepoint DLP support for optical character recognition (OCR). OCR expedites real-time client service because it can identify and protect sensitive data in images (such as PDFs). This means that PDFs can be freely yet securely shared with salespeople who need the information in order to support their clients.

The company chose Forcepoint Web Security Hybrid in order to extend its security to online services used by employees and contractors while blocking dangerous sites. The company implemented the DLP system first to prevent critical data leakage even in the face of malware invasions, and then rolled out Forcepoint Web Security to identify suspicious online behaviors and prevent the introduction of malware.

Centralized firewall management and cost savings

Because of its positive experience with both Forcepoint DLP and Web Security, Law decided to test out Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) as the third phase of its cybersecurity plan: firewall fortification to block malicious behaviors directly at the gateway

Forcepoint NGFW offers three features that made it the broker’s top choice. First, NGFW provides centralized management, allowing all policy updates to be sent from a single management interface. Management costs can be lowered considerably by avoiding the need to individually manage various versions of firmware at different sites. Second, NGFW allows a phased deployment, which means that firewalls at off-premises sites do not need to be replaced when core firewalls are replaced. Shen stressed this phase-by-phase replacement saves both the manpower and time required for assessment and testing. Last, NGFW has multiple integrated functions, including VPN, Quality of Service, Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), load balancing, and more. Firewall performance remains intact when many services are activated at the same time. The company kicked off the implementation with six Forcepoint firewalls, with plans to replace its remaining legacy firewalls as the maintenance contracts expire.

“We always choose to work with Forcepoint because of its complete product lineup, simplicity of product management, and strong support from partners.”

Johnny Shen
,
VP of Law Law Information Management Division

The first-ever approval for issuing insurance online

Its persistent data security efforts made Law Insurance Broker the first insurer approved to offer online insurance subscriptions by Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission. Both the audit and internal control systems and the company’s data security level met Commission requirements and amounted to an industry security benchmark, demonstrating how a security focus can deliver not just baseline compliance but industry leadership and direct business value. The company also became ISO 27001 certified for its information security management system and BS 10012-certified for its management of personal information.

Law has come to value the integrated solution’s ease of management and Forcepoint’s timely support. It especially appreciates that no new manpower is needed to manage the products once implemented—finding this both a cost-saver as well as an enabler of its other priorities.

“We always choose to work with Forcepoint because of its complete product lineup, simplicity of product management, and strong support from partners,” Johnny Shen said. “And our business growth benefits.”

Customer Profile

Insurance broker with a sales and service network of over 2,500 agents aand 30 offices across Taiwan.