The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) expressed its concern over rising fraud calls and recent data breach of over 3.2 million debit cards. It feels that the current measures for data security are inadequate as fraud callers are able to access confidential policy details of customers.
The IRDAI is looking forward to forming a working committee of Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) of insurance companies to develop data security standards. It is also asking insurers to submit present status and plans to meet cyber security needs of the future.
Nilesh Sathe, a life member of IRDAI confirmed the incidences of data pilferage in the insurance sector. He further acknowledged that customers are complaining of spurious calls where they are asked to surrender their existing policies and get new ones.
Spam calls on behalf of IRDAI have also been reported, where the caller claims that the insured has a pending refund. The caller then convinces the policyholder to disclose the policyholder’s bank details for a refund. In all such cases, the insurance companies have declined the authorisation of any such telesales person.
IRDAI has tried shutting down fake call centres in the past and collaborated with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). IRDAI has decided to speed up its efforts on developing a comprehensive cyber security framework for the insurance sector.