ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 18, 2009 — The Independent Agents & Brokers of America’s Agents Council for Technology (ACT) announced that it will be hosting another free Webinar titled “Protecting Independent Agent Clients with Secure E-mail Using TLS (Transport Layer Security),” on Tuesday, Sept. 22 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. EST.
TITLE: ACT Webinar: Protecting Independent Agent Clients with Secure E-mail Using TLS
MODERATOR: Jeff Yates, ACT Executive Director
PANELISTS: Jim Rogers, Director of Distribution Technology, The Hartford
Tim Woodcock, President, Courtesy Computers
DATE: Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009
TIME: 1:30 -2:30 p.m. EST
REGISTRATION: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/314990105
COST: Free
“We continue to have very strong agent interest in protecting sensitive data sent via e-mail, so we felt it was important to host another webinar on how TLS email encryption can be used to meet this need,” says Jeff Yates, ACT executive director. “Commercial line applications and other confidential consumer information must be protected when they are transported via e-mail to carriers and clients.”
The first 30 minutes of this Webinar is designed for agency business leaders and explains the risks of unsecured e-mail and how TLS works. The second 30 minutes will be a more technical discussion regarding implementation of TLS on Microsoft Exchange servers.
“ACT encourages independent agents and carriers implement TLS e-mail encryption where possible to protect sensitive and confidential client information being transported between carriers and clients,” Yates adds. “These important measures position the agency to also comply with the various federal and state privacy, security and data breach laws.”
“The first webinar on this topic had 334 agent and carrier representative participants, the second had 313 and the third included 161 participants,” continued Yates. “Each session received an incredible amount of positive follow up interest.”
TLS is available on most up-to-date in-house e-mail servers (such as Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes). It is not currently available on hosted e-mail such as Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo. Once implemented by the agency’s technology professional, TLS is transparent to the user and the primary cost is for the security certificate. It provides a better agent workflow than proprietary e-mail solutions imposed by the carrier. Many carriers are already enabled with TLS.
ACT has produced the article “Protect Your Clients with Secure E-mail using TLS,” as well as agents’ frequently asked questions about TLS, which can be found at www.independentagent.com/act at the “Security and Customer Privacy” link. The Web page also includes a list of carriers enabled for TLS as well as a recording of the previous webinar.
Established in 1999 by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”), ACT provides a candid, action-oriented forum for agent and industry associations, user groups, companies and vendors to address critical technology and workflow issues facing the independent agency system and provides agencies with reports and tools to assist them in making improvements in their businesses.
Founded in 1896, the Big “I” is the nation’s oldest and largest national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, representing a network of more than 300,000 agents, brokers and their employees nationally. Its members are businesses that offer customers a choice of policies from a variety of insurance companies. Independent agents and brokers offer all lines of insurance—property, casualty, life and health—as well as employee benefit plans and retirement products. Web address: www.independentagent.com.
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