The Unthinkable Risks of the Cloud

By mid-2013 – meaning now — cloud computing will be in use by about 80 percent of about 600 companies with at least 500 employees each,  according to a 2012 TNS Infratest survey. The trend is undeniable:  Data management and storage are moving offsite to cloud computing vendors on a vast scale.To...

By David E. Wood • Aug. 27, 2013

Why Conflict Minerals Disclosure is Serious Business

There are two important sections of the Dodd-Frank Act that absolutely must be on every CFO’s radar screen: Section 1502 for conflict minerals and Section 1504 for resource extractions (how much a firm may pay governments for access to minerals, oil and gas), both of which require complex disclos...

By Kristine Brands • Aug. 23, 2013

Data Threats Spark Insurance Hunger

Jitters about the potential for steep financial losses stemming from such threats as computer hacking and data-privacy mishaps are driving more corporate risk managers and finance executives to buy cyber insurance, according to recent surveys.With premiums flat for the coverage, which purports to...

By David Katz • Aug. 21, 2013

Five Ways to Curb Workplace Drug Risks

Longer-term use of opioids is costly to injured workers, their families and their employers. It may put injured workers at risk of misuse of opioids, which can lead to addiction, overdose and illegal distribution to others—a serious public health concern. Longer-term use can also substantially de...

By Richard A. Victor • Aug. 8, 2013

Legal Costs Up at 50 Percent of Companies

Faced with mounting legal costs, companies are adopting risk-prevention approaches and doing more in-house work to stem the tide, according to a recently released survey of corporate legal chiefs at U.S.-based companies with yearly revenues of $250 million or more.More than half of 117 corporate ...

By David Katz • Aug. 7, 2013

Oklahoma and Beyond: Significant State Workers’ Compensation Reforms In 2013

The cost of providing workers’ compensation insurance is one of the top issues for companies of all sizes and across industries. Because it is regulated at the state level, companies need to stay abreast of issues in any state in which they do business. To date in 2013, nine states have seen sign...

By Mark Walls • Aug. 1, 2013

Internal Technology Evangelist: Angel or Devil?

The development of new, disruptive and innovative technologies is one thing. Commercializing them and getting them flying off the shelves is another. In the current supersaturated market of innovations, from wearable technology to big data, the role of the technology evangelist can make all the d...

By Rob Livingstone • July 15, 2013

Big Data Makes for Smarter Risk Management

From the smallest business decisions to the largest ones, risk influences all that we do. But taking a risk is not exactly like spinning a roulette wheel, where luck is the primary ingredient for success. With use of the right tools, risks can carefully be calculated, controlled and managed, grea...

By William Fuessler • June 28, 2013

Why On-the-Job Injuries Cost So Much

Despite their battle to contain costs of all kinds, CFOs rarely look at their companies’ workers compensation payments.Reasoning that the per-unit outlays for the medical care of workers injured on the job are fixed by state statute, finance executives tend to shrug and pay bills at 100 percent o...

By David Katz • June 27, 2013

Cyber-Attacks: Computer Says No

“Tick tock tick tock”, tweeted Anonymous Africa, a group of computer hackers, on June 14th. Minutes later a website of the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s ruling party, went offline: another victim of the oldest and crudest form of cyber-assault, a distributed denial of service (D...

By Economist Staff • June 25, 2013

Watch out for Workers’ Compensation

In most cases, employers end up paying a whole lot more for outpatient treatment for employee shoulder and knee injuries under workers’ compensation than they do under group-health benefit plans, according to a new study. The takeaway for CFOs: Do all you can to make your workers’ comp payment ra...

By David Katz • June 24, 2013

Fears of Vanishing Terror Insurance Grow

With the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) set to expire at the end of 2014, corporate risk managers are worrying aloud about what would happen if there’s no property, casualty or workers’ compensation coverage available in connection with a terrorist act.The anxieties include the possible unra...

By David Katz • June 19, 2013

The Search for Comprehensive Cyber Insurance

Cyber security has become a popular headline topic. Its increasing prominence has spawned a new awareness of risks to business from a variety of threats, including the theft of intellectual property and customer data; operational impairment and the destruction of physical property; and the exploi...

By Robert Liscouski and Scott Kannry • June 17, 2013

NSA Leak Could Cause Cloud Repercussions

The long arm of the National Security Agency has shaken the apparent inviolability of confidentiality offered to organizations with overseas operations by U.S.-based (or owned) Cloud providers. Since its popular emergence in the earlier part of the last decade, cloud computing has transformed how...

By Rob Livingstone • June 12, 2013

Safety Spending Gets No Respect

NEW YORK — In August 2009, a powerful earthquake halted production at one of Corning’s liquid-crystal-display glass manufacturing facilities in Shizuoka, Japan. The quake put a crimp in the company’s ability to parlay a spike in demand for LCD glass, causing it to report an estimated $65 million ...

By David Katz • June 12, 2013

Emerging Tech: Are CFOs Blind to the Risks?

It’s not news that the seemingly never-ending stream of new and disruptive technologies is affecting every aspect of society. When innovative, appealing and easy-to-use technologies come on to the market, the tech sugar hit craving kicks in for most and many individuals adopt new consumer technol...

By Rob Livingstone • June 3, 2013

CFOs Open to Improving Tech Literacy

CFOs are acknowledging that technology has become increasingly important to the success of finance departments. That new awareness comes even as they admit there is a serious knowledge gap among finance executives when it comes to emerging technologies.That’s according to a survey of 930 CFOs con...

By Taylor Provost • May 30, 2013

FCPA Compliance: Let Data Do the Work

The recent news that Ralph Lauren Corp (RLC) will pay about $1.6 million to resolve Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations may at first blush look like another example of a company getting caught in a bribery scandal. In fact, RLC found the $568,000 bribes paid to an Argentinian customs ...

By John Verver • May 29, 2013

Regulatory Climate Has Tech Companies on Edge

New regulations stemming from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, along with a number of new policies from federal and state regulators, are the number one concern of U.S. technology companies, according to a new risk report from accounting and consulting firm BDO USA. ...

By Taylor Provost • May 21, 2013

Cat Bonds: A Way to Hedge Corporate Risk?

Slowly but surely, pricing for catastrophe bonds is inching to a point at which at least one broker thinks a corporation with a huge, concentrated risk — a $500 million facility on the San Andreas fault, say — may find the bonds a useful way to hedge against a natural disaster.To be sure, such a ...

By David Katz • May 16, 2013

Why CFOs Should Oversee Company Cloud Initiatives

In a competitive global economy, it is essential for CFOs to be engaged in understanding technologies and how they are influencing business strategies and presenting new risks. Cloud services support a wide range of business activities, such as, communication, collaboration, project management, s...

By Janet A. Stiven • May 1, 2013

Mortgage Insurance Crackdown: a Cautionary Tale for CFOs

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent crackdown on alleged “kickbacks” paid by mortgage insurers to mortgage lenders should put the CFOs of companies that deal with consumers or are involved in captive insurance arrangements on alert, insurance experts say.On April 4, the CFPB, create...

By David Katz • April 19, 2013

Social-Media Analytics Offer New Insight on Risk

More businesses than ever will begin using social media to identify quickly arising intellectual-property, reputational and brand-value risks, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey.PwC’s Risk in Review report, based on responses from 800 global executives, found that risks related to t...

By Taylor Provost • April 15, 2013

How Sound Are Your Business Continuity Plans?

Mismanaging a potential risk exposure can cost your organization money as well as reduce your shareholder value. It can also leave your company unprepared to take advantage of business opportunities and limit growth and innovation. The more an organization understands its risk exposures and plans...

By Kristina Narvaez • April 12, 2013

Liability Insurance Spikes of 10 Percent Seen

Despite a devastating six months of storm-related property damage, CFOs and risk managers will see much stiffer rate hikes for casualty insurance than for property coverage over the next six months, according to a report released yesterday by Willis Group Holdings, the big commercial insurance br...

By David Katz • April 11, 2013