NU Online News Service, Sept. 16, 3:23 p.m. EDT

The Agents Council for Technology (ACT) has released a prototypeagency information security plan to assist agencies and brokeragesin creating their own written security plans.

The plan's aim is to safeguard the private information of anagency's clients and employees, the agency's proprietary andconfidential information, the physical security of the agency'spremises and the integrity of electronic systems so that theyfunction smoothly and without interruption.

"Numerous state privacy and security breach notification laws,as well as several federal laws, require agents to have writtensecurity plans to protect their operations and the privacy of theirclients' and employees' private information," said Steve Aronson,president of Aronson Insurance in Newton & Needham, Mass. andchairman of the ACT Agency Security Best Practices Work Group thatproduced the plan.

"Not only could a breach of clients' private informationdevastate an agency's reputation; it is likely to result in theagency's having to undertake extremely time consuming and costlyactions on behalf of the individuals whose private information mayhave been compromised."

Jeff Yates, ACT executive director, added, "Having a soundwritten information security plan is an essential risk managementtool for every independent agency. We wanted to provide agencieswith a free tool they could customize to fit the size andcomplexity of their own operations."

The plan, according to ACT, protects private information in anyform, whether it is voice, electronic or paper, and containsadditional tips agents should keep in mind as they customize theplan, along with links to various laws that may apply andadditional resources that are available.

Mr. Yates pointed out that this is only the first step in acomprehensive security plan. Agents also need to appoint aninformation security coordinator to oversee the plan and establishprocedures, workflows, training, monitoring, auditing, law and planreviews to carry it out fully.

Agents and other industry participants can visit the ACT website to download the free prototype agency informationsecurity plan.