Travelers Institute celebrates 10th anniversary, rings opening bell at NYSE
Travelers also hosted a Cyber: Prepare, Prevent, Mitigate, Restore educational symposium at the New York Stock Exchange.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) lists thousands of companies — including the Travelers Companies Inc.
On Feb. 11, 2020, the Travelers Institute, the public policy division of Travelers, celebrated its 10th anniversary by ringing the opening bell at the NYSE. Joan Woodward, executive vice president, public policy at Travelers, and president of the Travelers Institute, told a packed room full of attendees that decades of good growth allowed Travelers to establish the Travelers Institute.
Travelers established the Travelers Institute as a means of participating in the public policy dialogue on matters of interest to the property & casualty insurance sector as well as the financial services industry more broadly.
“Cybereducation has really been a big effort over the last couple of years,” says Woodward.
Celebration and education
After ringing the opening bell, Travelers hosted a Cyber: Prepare, Prevent, Mitigate, Restore educational symposium in collaboration with the Partnership for New York City and Big I New York.
John Miller, deputy commissioner, intelligence and counterterrorism for the New York City Police Department, opened the symposium and recounted his experience on the job. Regarding the scope of cyberattacks, Miller says there are three types: state actors (like the Equifax hack), big crime (sophisticated actors targeting banks and hedge funds, often in the form of ransomware, looking for a big score) and regular cybercrime (the average Joe conducting a cyberattack, which he says is the most complicated of the three).
Afterward, Woodward moderated a panel discussion with the following speakers on managing cyberthreats:
- Stephen Boyer – co-founder and chief technology officer at BitSight
- Ryan Loughlin – partner at Mullen Coughlin
- Jerry Perullo – chief information security officer at Intercontinental Exchange Inc.
- Edward Chang – second vice president, cyber risk management, bond & specialty insurance at Travelers
The panelists discussed how to deal with the next big hurdle in cyber, trends in the field they’re seeing, how cyber risks are universal to all sectors and industries, whether to pay or not pay a ransomware demand and more.
The symposium concluded with a keynote address by Donna Gregory, unit chief, Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Gregory discussed the evolution of cyberattacks, the purpose of the IC3 and how it responds to complaints, and shared tips on how to navigate the internet as best as possible.
“I’m grateful to be working with so many knowledgeable individuals and organizations to bring attention to such critical challenges facing our industry and the business community at large. We have addressed many meaningful issues in the past 10 years and will continue to drive important conversations about the risks that affect us all,” Woodward said in a statement.
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