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News Briefs

June 2006

SAFECO NAMES WILLIAM JENKS AS CIO

Seattle-based Safeco Corp. has named William Jenks chief information officer. Jenks most recently served as executive vice president and chief information officer of worldwide operations at Publicis Groupe, one of the world's largest advertising and media companies. At Publicis, Jenks led the consolidation of separate technology platforms following a major corporate acquisition. He also realigned the company's technical resources to support top-line business objectives and improve the efficiency of its global workforce. Before joining Publicis, Jenks was chief information officer at Space Systems/Loral, Heller Financial, Inc., and at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. "Bill has an outstanding track record of leading transformational change with regard to technology infrastructure," says Paula Rosput Reynolds, Safeco president and chief executive officer. "His experience working in time-critical, high-transaction environments, combined with his proven hands-on leadership, will help us achieve our stated goals of becoming a low-cost and logistically outstanding carrier." Jenks replaces Yom Senegor who has announced his resignation from Safeco. Senegor joined Safeco in 2001 from Accenture where he led the insurance practice area.

FINANCIAL SERVICES MOST EXPOSED TO CYBER RISKS

Last year was a turning point for cyber attacks. It was the year when the predominant threats on the Internet transitioned from being perpetrated by hobbyist hackers to criminals.

This is according to a recent report issued by Counterpane Internet Security Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of network protection services, and MessageLabs Ltd., a provider of messaging security with regional headquarters in New York City.

"Security threats have rapidly evolved," says Bruce Schneier, founder and chief technology officer of Counterpane. "In just 12 months, cyber-criminals have moved away from deploying large-scale generalized attacks ... toward carefully engineered attacks calculated for precise outcomes." This approach is epitomized by 2005's epidemic of identity theft and financial fraud, he says.

In 2005, the financial services sector received the most Trojan attacks and the most probes/enumeration attacks at close to 40% and 30% worldwide, respectively. What's more, the insurance/real estate sector received the highest rate of direct hacker attacks at 25%, and the second highest rate of spyware attacks at 29.5%.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation in its 2005 Computer Crime Survey estimates the financial loss suffered by an organization due to a Trojan virus or worm to be at least $38,000 per incident, according to the report.

As for the average loss suffered by an organization due to financial fraud, the FBI survey estimates $13,000 per incident, with large institutions more likely to be attacked more often.

Cyber attacks will cause greater damage to companies in the coming years, warns Schneier. "We estimate that some malware with a modest infection rate could cost a small company $83,000 a year," he says. For larger companies, with a deeper infection, the cost could be as high as $1 million or more.

THE HARTFORD APPOINTS ESPOSITO CIO OF INDIVIDUAL CIO OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE DIVISION

The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Hartford, Conn., has named Mark Esposito as chief information officer for its individual life division. Esposito, who is also vice president and director of business technology, will lead the division's project management office and technology initiatives. He will be a member of the senior planning group, which helps Executive Vice President Michael Kalen, director of individual life, set direction for the division. "The pace of technological change-and its impact on how life insurers do business-will continue to accelerate in the future," he says. "With Mark's help, The Hartford will keep its foot on the technology accelerator and, ultimately, stay out in front of the competition." Esposito joins The Hartford after spending more than 20 years with Phoenix Life; most recently as vice president, information technology of the insurer's individual life and annuity business.

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