Cyber insurance: Aflac fights threats with AI

As cyber threats become more sophisticated, insurance companies are evolving to safeguard customers’ data and financial well-being. American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus is leading this transformation by integrating cybersecurity into its core services, offering enhanced cyber insurance solutions.

Through advanced fraud detection technologies, Aflac is addressing the growing risk of phishing attacks and identity theft, positioning itself as a proactive defender in an increasingly vulnerable digital world. This approach showcases how cyber insurance is becoming a crucial tool for modern insurers in combating emerging online threats.

Aflac’s DJ Goldsworthy discusses AI, cybersecurity and insurance with theCUBE.

“We have to make sure that adversaries aren’t trying to use that brand to promote and further their attacks,” said DJ Goldsworthy (pictured), vice president and global practice lead of security operations and threat management at Aflac. “Things like phishing schemes and other schemes and employment fraud schemes, things like that. Because it’s a household brand, it puts us into the scope of some of those types of adversarial activities.”

Goldsworthy spoke with theCUBE Research’s Dave Vellante and Rebecca Knight at Fal.Con, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed Aflac’s approach that involves staying proactive and strategic partnerships to combine cybersecurity and insurance. (* Disclosure below.)

Gen AI and cyber insurance: Aflac’s approach explained

Generative AI is transforming the cybersecurity landscape for attackers and defenders. It enhances the sophistication and speed of cyberattacks, enabling adversaries to gather vast amounts of information and exploit vulnerabilities faster than ever before. This makes it imperative for Aflac to leverage AI in its own defenses, creating intelligent systems capable of detecting and responding to threats at the same speed as attackers, according to Goldsworthy.

“Speed is always a challenge in cyber because the faster that adversaries can exploit vulnerabilities, the faster you have to be at identifying them and fixing them,” he said. “They’re also going to become more sophisticated because they’re going to be able to gather large amounts of information on our identities, social media and information about the company.”

By consolidating vendors, Aflac has streamlined its security processes, reduced overhead and enhanced interoperability between tools. A more consolidated platform enables seamless communication between tools and ensures more effective detection and disruption of attacks, according to Goldsworthy.

“You’re doing all this integration work to make tool A work with tool B, which then works with tool C,” he said. “Are they sharing the right information and do those integrations work? All the maintenance around that. Most teams struggle to get that right. That’s why I think we see these multi-million dollar investments in cybersecurity and breaches are still happening.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of Fal.Con: 

(* Disclosure: CrowdStrike Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE