Cliff Rudolph's Insurance Blog

Privacy Rights Outside of the United States

In an attempt by Foreign Regulatory officials to protect indivuals rights of privacy, both Swiss and German regulators are looking closely at whether social networks are responsible for private information posted by social network members. 

European Privacy Battle Looms for Facebook, Google

Penalties and Taxes as a result of new federal health care reform

Here is an article from Business Insurance on some of the key issues related to the Health Care reform approved on March 21st by the House of Representatives: Understanding key provisions in federal health care reform legislation | Business Insurance.

It is estimated that 32 million US residents will gain coverage as a result of the US Health Care reform passed on March 21st by the House of Representatives, and awaiting approval from the Senate.

One of the keys to the new legislation will include a penalty for employers if they do not offer coverage or if coverage fails an affordability test.  Begining in 2014 for employers of at least 50 employess, will asess a penalty of $2,000 for each employee that is not offered coverage.  It will also assess a penalty of $3,000 per employee if coverage is not "affordable". 

In 2018 a 40% excise tax will be imposed to insurers and plan administrators (for self-funded plans) for premiums exceeding $10,200 single coverage and $27,000 for family coverage. 

Cliff Rudolph

Seattle is ranked the most riskiest online city!

With the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, Real Networks, F5, Attachmate, and InfoSpace, it is never a surprise when Seattle garners a #1 ranking in a technology repor.  But today Seattle gets the dubious distinction of being the most "Riskiest Online City" as reported by Symantec (Norton).  You can read the report here.

I read about this on John Cook's blog and was not surprised. 

What I am surprised with is how many organizations fail to insure against this exposure.  The legal and financial liabilities are extensive, and almost all organizations have exposure to a data liability breach.  Here is an article that I wrote on the subject and how organizations can mitigate losses due to a data breach.

Cliff Rudolph