Sony Walkman, (c) Caymia, Dreamstime.com
By Alvito Vaz
The cassette tape was invented in 1962 by Philips and released in 1963. It wasn’t until the 1980s, however, that it was widely used by consumers. Remember the Walkman, which was designed to let people listen to music wherever they wanted? Philips and Sony, two giants in the electronics industry that normally were competitors, worked together to make the cassette a consumer staple.
Following that success Sony and Philips continued to cooperate, introducing the compact disk (CD) from Philips and Discman from Sony. The CD was another cooperative innovation that changed consumer behavior and the way we listen to music. The CD introduced digital media, which is the basis of music listening today. Imagine a world of 8-track tapes if Sony and Philips had not worked together.
Cooperation needed for IA channel cybersecurity
Today cybersecurity is a growing threat across all industries. CyberArk, a leader in security, reported in its Threat Landscape Report 2024 that in the last 12 months, 93% of organizations suffered two or more identity-related breaches. By cooperating, the independent agent channel could reduce cyber risk and do it with operational efficiency. The average agency works with 10 insurance carriers. Yes, each of the carriers can implement its own MFA authentication process. But that only protects that single carrier-agent connection — and it’s likely to be implemented with 10 different proprietary MFA processes.
Just as Sony and Philips cooperated to advance digital music, the independent insurance industry can cooperate to implement a single approach to cybersecurity. Insurance industry peers already have cooperated to implement and manage a Trust Framework that allows federated authentication across partners. With SignOn Once by ID Federation, the agent authenticates into their management system and that credential is shared, via a federated approach, with carrier partners — no reentry of ID, password or MFA is required.
Even though Philips invented the cassette tape and the CD, without Sony’s cooperation, we would not have MP3 capability and Spotify today. Likewise, the leading technology partners of insurance — Vertafore and Applied Systems — have cooperated to implement ID Federation’s SignOn Once capability. Independent agents now need leading insurance carriers to come together and support this initiative — and make it the security standard for the independent agency channel.
Encourage your carriers to participate in ID Federation
Help make the industry more secure with operational efficiency for independent agents. Agents don’t need a different MFA sign on with each carrier partner. Thanks to the cooperation of Applied Systems and Vertafore, management system credentials can be used to securely access carrier agent portals, and carrier partners like The Hartford and Nationwide already have cooperated and are in production today.
Alvito Vaz is executive director of ID Federation. He is a long-time participant in AUGIE and has held business and technology leadership roles at Progressive and Travelers. He can be reached at alvito@idfederation.com.
