Fintech PR
Ping An’s NBV up 45% YoY in the first half of 2023, interim cash dividend per share grows to RMB0.93
HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, Aug. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter “Ping An“, the “Company” or the “Group”, HKEX: 2318; SSE: 601318) today announced its 2023 interim results for the six month period ended 30 June 2023.
The external environment remained complex and China’s economy was generally stable in the first half of 2023. However, market confidence still needed to be continuously boosted. Amid internal and external complexities and uncertainties, Ping An followed the spirit of the 20th National Congress of CPC and adhered to the original aspiration of being people-centered. Under the leadership of the Board of Directors and in response to the financial consumption needs of the new era, Ping An has integrated its services into insurance, investment and wealth management, healthcare and elderlycare services scenarios, boosting domestic demand and consumption while simultaneously serving hundreds of millions of consumers through its integrated finance one-stop service model. With the continuous advancement of life insurance reform and the construction of the healthcare ecosystem, Ping An deeply implemented the new concept of high-quality development. The Group continuously improved its capability and level of financial services for the real economy and the protection of people’s livelihoods. Furthermore, Ping An strengthened technological support and digital empowerment, comprehensively managed risks, optimized portfolios, and increased cost-effectiveness to ensure the long-term sustainable and sound operation of the Company.
Overall operating results remain solid. Ping An delivered an 18.2% annualized operating ROE, with operating profit and net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reaching RMB81,957 million and RMB 69,841 million, respectively, in the first half of 2023. The Group’s basic operating earnings per share reached RMB4.63 in the first half of 2023. Ping An attaches importance to shareholder returns, and interim cash dividend per share continued to grow to RMB0.93, up 1.1% year on year. Life insurance reform showed significant results. Thanks to the Group’s unwavering life insurance reform and innovation in the past 3 years, as well as the stabilization and improvement in market demand, Life & Health NBV amounted to RMB25,960 million in the first half of 2023, up 45.0% on a like-for-like basis year on year. In the agent channel, productivity strongly improved with NBV per agent rising 94.3% year on year. Bancassurance channel NBV also increased sharply by 174.7% year on year on a like-for-like basis to RMB2,825 million in the first half of 2023, mainly benefiting from the deepening exclusive agency model with Ping An Bank. Ping An continuously developed its “integrated finance + healthcare” strategy. Retail customers exceeded 229 million as of June 30, 2023, and contracts per customer grew 0.7% from the beginning of the year to 2.99. Over 90.71 million retail customers held multiple contracts with different subsidiaries and 29.7% of the Group’s new retail customers were acquired from its healthcare ecosystem as of June 30, 2023. Customers entitled to “insurance + service” benefits accounted for over 68% of Ping An Life’s NBV in the first half of 2023.
Top business highlights in 1H2023
- Continuously growing cash dividends amid steady business results. The Group delivered an 18.2% annualized operating ROE, with operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reaching RMB81,957 million in the first half of 2023. Ping An attaches importance to shareholder returns, and interim cash dividend per share continued to grow to RMB0.93, up 1.1% year on year.
- Ping An continuously develops its integrated finance model. Retail customers exceeded 229 million as of June 30, 2023, and contracts per customer grew 0.7% from the beginning of the year to 2.99. Retail business accounted for 83.4% of total operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company.
- NBV jumped year on year and life insurance reform showed results. Life & Health NBV amounted to RMB25,960 million in the first half of 2023. On a like-for-like basis, NBV grew 45.0% year on year in the first half of 2023, with NBV of the agent channel and the bancassurance channel increasing 43.0% and 174.7%, respectively, year on year.
- Ping An Property and Casualty (“Ping An P&C”) boosted insurance revenue steadily and maintained good business quality. Insurance revenue grew 7.8% year on year to RMB155,899 million in the first half of 2023. Overall underwriting combined ratio remained healthy at 98.0% due to strengthened business management and risk screening.
- Ping An Bank achieved double-digit growth in net profit and maintained solid overall asset quality. Net profit grew 14.9% year on year to RMB25,387 million in the first half of 2023. Non-performing loan ratio declined by 0.02 pps from the beginning of the year to 1.03% and provision coverage ratio rose by 1.23 pps from the beginning of the year to 291.51% as of June 30, 2023.
- Ping An continued to implement its healthcare ecosystem strategy to empower its core financial businesses. Through integration of providers, Ping An partnered with all top 100 hospitals and 3A hospitals, and had nearly 4,000 in-house doctors and over 50,000 contracted external doctors in China as of June 30, 2023. Ping An partnered with approximately 226,000 pharmacies in China as of June 30, 2023, up by nearly 2,000 from the beginning of the year. Customers entitled to “Insurance + service” benefits accounted for over 68% of Ping An Life’s NBV in the first half of 2023.
- Ping An supported the real economy and advanced green finance initiatives. Ping An cumulatively invested over RMB8.27 trillion as of June 30, 2023 to support the real economy. Green investment of insurance funds and green loan balance totaled RMB140,929 million and RMB134,926 million, respectively, as of June 30, 2023. Green insurance premium income amounted to RMB17,735 million in the first half of 2023.
- Ping An maintained its leadership in brand value. In 2023, Ping An ranked 33rd in the Fortune Global 500 list (1st among global insurers again and 5th among global financial services companies), 9th in the Fortune China 500 list, 16th in the Forbes Global 2000 list, and 1st in the Brand Finance Insurance 100 list in relation to global insurance brand value for the 7th consecutive year.
Unique advantages under the integrated finance model continually drove the core financial businesses
Focusing on the development of retail customers under a customer-centric philosophy, Ping An steadily optimized its integrated finance strategy. Ping An’s retail operating profit was RMB68,355 million in the first half of 2023, accounting for 83.4% of its operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company. In retail business, Ping An leverages its ecosystems to build a brand of heartwarming financial services by providing “worry-free, time-saving, and money-saving” one-stop integrated finance solutions. Ping An’s retail customers exceeded 229 million as of June 30, 2023, up 1.2% from the beginning of the year. Contracts per retail customer grew to 2.99, up 0.7% from the beginning of the year. Over 90.71 million retail customers held multiple contracts with different subsidiaries.
The retail finance market in China has long-term high growth potential with the strong growth rate of the wealth management market and the huge growth potential of the retail insurance market. Ping An provided customers with insurance, banking, investment, elderlycare and healthcare services leveraging the advantages of Ping An’s full suite of financial business licenses. Ping An offered customers with heartwarming products and services based on in-depth, comprehensive customer insights. The Group built a robust ecosystem-based service capability and strong technology platform capabilities to promote customer migrations within the Group. Customer acquisition cost of integrated finance channels is lower than that of external channels. Approximately 12.04 million customer migrations occurred within the Group in the first half of 2023. Integrated finance continued to make contributions to the Company’s insurance businesses and Ping An Bank’s retail business in the first half of 2023. The wealthier the customers are, the more contracts they hold. Middle-class and above customers accounted for more than 75.7% of the Group’s total retail customers as of June 30, 2023. High-net-worth individuals held 21.44 contracts per customer as of June 30, 2023. Customers holding multiple contracts show greater stickiness. 26% of our customers held four or more contracts within the Group as of June 30, 2023, and their churn rate was only 0.91%.
Ping An Life advanced the “4 channels + 3 products” strategy and the reform showed significant results[1]. Ping An Life achieved steady business development thanks to comprehensive advancement in channels, improved business quality, and diverse products and services launched. China’s macro economy resumed an upward trend in the first half of 2023 as market demand recovered gradually. Life & Health NBV amounted to RMB25,960 million in the first half of 2023. On a like-for-like basis, NBV grew 45.0% year on year in the first half of 2023. Business quality continued to improve. Ping An Life recorded a material improvement in its persistency ratios with the 13-month persistency ratio rising 2.1 pps year on year and 25-month persistency ratio rising 7.0 pps year on year in the first half of 2023.
Ping An Life realized comprehensive advancement in channels. Ping An Life facilitated the high-quality transformation of the agent channel. The agent channel’s NBV grew 43.0% on a like-for-like basis year on year to RMB21,303 million in the first half of 2023. Productivity strongly improved with NBV per agent rising 94.3% year on year. The proportion of “Talent +” new agents increased by 25 pps year on year in the first half of 2023. Ping An Life has achieved a jump in value growth by furthering the strategic transformation of the bancassurance channel, boosting the channel’s NBV by 174.7% year on year on a like-for-like basis to RMB2,825 million in the first half of 2023. Ping An Life furthered the exclusive agency model with Ping An Bank, and helped Ping An Bank build a team of over 2,000 professional Private Wealth Advisers. Ping An Life has successfully rolled out Community Grid in 51 cities and 13-month policy persistency ratio of “retained customers” improved by 5.7 pps year on year. In respect of the lower-tier channel, Ping An Life continuously promoted sales via the lower-tier channel in seven provinces in the first half of 2023. By upgrading its insurance product portfolio, Ping An Life penetrates wealth management and pension insurance markets by focusing on wealth management, pension savings and health protection. Leveraging the Group’s healthcare ecosystem, Ping An Life improved its three core services, namely healthcare, home-based elderlycare and high-end elderlycare, aiming to build differential advantages under the “insurance + service” framework. Ping An Life served over 16 million customers through health management in the first half of 2023. Nearly 70% of newly enrolled customers used health management services. Ping An’s home-based elderlycare services covered 47 cities across China as of June 30, 2023. Over 60,000 customers have qualified for the home-based elderlycare services. Ping An has unveiled high-end elderlycare projects in four cities, namely Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Foshan as of June 30, 2023.
Ping An P&C maintained stable business growth and good business quality. Ping An P&C grew its insurance revenue by 7.8% year on year to RMB155,899 million in the first half of 2023 and delivered a 98.0% overall underwriting combined ratio (“underwriting COR”) which included a 97.1% auto insurance underwriting COR. Ping An P&C actively refined operations and overall operations were in steady and healthy good order. Vehicles insured by Ping An P&C increased 5.4% year on year, and auto insurance premium income rose 6.1% year on year to RMB101,348 million in the first half of 2023. Registered users of the “Ping An Auto Owner” app, the largest automotive service app in China, exceeded 186 million as of June 30, 2023, with over 125 million vehicles linked to the app. Ping An P&C scored 94.52 in the Auto Insurance Service Quality Index evaluation by China Banking and Insurance Information Technology Management Co., Ltd., ranking among the top players in the property and casualty insurance industry.
Ping An Bank maintained stable, healthy business performance and solid overall asset quality. Ping An Bank’s revenue totaled RMB88,610 million in the first half of 2023. Net profit grew 14.9% year on year to RMB25,387 million, and annualized weighted average ROE rose by 0.45 pps year on year to 12.65% in the first half of 2023. Thanks to continuously strengthened risk management, non-performing loan ratio dropped 0.02 pps from the beginning of the year to 1.03%, and provision coverage ratio increased by 1.23 pps from the beginning of the year to 291.51% as of June 30, 2023. Ping An Bank achieved steady growth in retail business. Retail assets under management (AUM) rose 7.7% from the beginning of the year to RMB3,864,024 million, and retail deposit balance grew 10.9% from the beginning of the year to RMB1,147,481 million as of June 30, 2023. As Ping An Bank continued to strengthen omni-channel customer acquisition and full-scenario business development, “Ping An Pocket Bank” app’s registered users increased 4.6% from the beginning of the year to 159,925 thousand as of June 30, 2023.
The Company’s insurance funds investment portfolio grew 6.5% from the beginning of the year to nearly RMB4.62 trillion as of June 30, 2023. The Company’s insurance funds investment portfolio achieved an annualized comprehensive investment yield of 4.1% in the first half of 2023, up by 0.7 pps year on year. The Company continued to optimize asset-liability matching and tactical allocation, and effectively managed investment risks by strengthening risk review, refining risk limits, and tightening concentration risk management and post-investment management.
Developing healthcare as a new driver of value growth
Currently, the healthcare industry in China has huge growth potential and elderlycare services are in high demand at all levels. Ping An launched an innovative Chinese “managed care model” with its over ten years of operational and management experience in insurance and healthcare industries. Leveraging its online, in-store and home-delivery service capabilities and wide coverage of hundreds of healthcare and elderlycare service resources, Ping An seamlessly combined its online/offline healthcare ecosystem with financial businesses in which Ping An acts as a payer to create a unique business model.
Ping An’s healthcare ecosystem continuously empowers its core financial businesses. 29.7% of the Group’s new retail customers were acquired from its healthcare ecosystem and customers entitled to service benefits in the healthcare ecosystem accounted for over 68% of Ping An Life’s NBV in the first half of 2023. More than 64% of Ping An’s over 229 million retail customers had used services from the healthcare ecosystem as of June 30, 2023. They held approximately 3.43 contracts and RMB55,800 in AUM per capita, 1.6 times and 3.2 times those held by non-users of these services respectively.
As a payer, Ping An made significant progress in both retail and corporate customer development by effectively integrating insurance with healthcare and elderlycare services. Ping An’s healthcare ecosystem achieved over 33,000 paying corporate clients in the first half of 2023. Ping An Health reached over 45 million paying users over the past 12 months. Ping An achieved over RMB70 billion in health insurance premium income in the first half of 2023. Over 16 million customers of Ping An Life used services from the healthcare ecosystem in the first half of 2023. Notably, nearly 70% of Ping An Life’s newly-enrolled customers used the healthcare services in the first half of 2023. As a provider, Ping An had a team of nearly 4,000 in-house doctors and over 50,000 contracted external doctors in China as of June 30, 2023. Ping An had six proprietary 3A/tier-3 hospitals, and partnered with over 10,000 hospitals (including all top 100 hospitals and 3A hospitals), over 100,000 healthcare management institutions and approximately 226,000 pharmacies in China as of June 30, 2023. Ping An enhanced its presence in the healthcare industry by acquiring PKU Healthcare Group and integrating its excellent resources into Ping An’s existing healthcare ecosystem. These resources include six 3A/tier-3 hospitals, specialty medical institutions and so on, among which Peking University International Hospital is a flagship hospital.
Ping An empowers its core financial businesses with innovative technologies to improve quality and efficiency. With 49,429 patent applications in total, the Group ranked first globally by the number of both fintech and healthcare patent applications as of June 30, 2023. The digital marketing platform helped agents reach out to customers over 110 million times, and renewal premiums collected via self-service under smart guidance grew 13% year on year to RMB173.4 billion in the first half of 2023. The volume of services provided by AI service representatives reached about 990 million times, accounting for 81% of Ping An’s total customer service volume in the first half of 2023. Claims loss reduction via smart risk identification reached RMB6 billion, up 33% year on year. Net profit of the technology business segment amounted to RMB2,308 million in the first half of 2023. While Lufax Holding’s net profit decreased year on year, business results at Autohome, Ping An Health and OneConnect improved.
In the second half of 2023, China’s macro economy will continue to move forward despite the new challenges such as insufficient domestic demand and pressure on exports. Ping An will continue adhering to the business policy of “focusing on core businesses, increasing cost-effectiveness, optimizing portfolios, and improving policies and procedures” in the second half of 2023. Under the technology-driven “integrated finance + healthcare” strategy, Ping An will remain people-centered and customer needs-oriented, continue to seek synergies from integrated finance by advancing the development and comprehensive digital transformation of healthcare and elderlycare. The Group will improve the quality and efficiency of serving the real economy by boosting domestic demand and consumption. The Group will promote the inner strength potential of core finance, insurance, and healthcare businesses, promote high-quality development, and continuously create solid and sustainable value for customers, employees, shareholders and society.
[1] 4 channels include agent channel, bancassurance channel, Community Grid channel, and lower-tier channel, and 3 products include insurance + healthcare, insurance + home-based elderlycare, and insurance + high-end elderlycare. |
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Fintech PR
DAZN ADVANCES GLOBAL EXPANSION WITH ACQUISITION OF FOXTEL, A LEADING AUSTRALIAN SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA GROUP
- Milestone deal for DAZN’s position as the global home of sport.
- This acquisition establishes DAZN’s sports platform in Australia, one of the world’s most attractive sports markets.
- Foxtel Group will leverage DAZN’s global reach, industry-leading technology and extensive content portfolio to further enhance the viewing experience for Australian sports fans.
LONDON, NEW YORK, and SYDNEY, Dec. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — DAZN, a world-leading sports entertainment platform, has today announced an agreement to acquire Foxtel Group (‘Foxtel’) from its majority shareholder News Corp and minority shareholder Telstra at an enterprise value of US$2.2 billion, subject to regulatory approval.
The acquisition establishes DAZN as a leader in sports entertainment in Australia – a highly attractive sports market – while also expanding DAZN’s global footprint and enhancing the group’s standing as the global home of sport. The addition of Foxtel to DAZN brings the Group’s pro-forma revenues towards US$6 billion and provides the additional content, expertise, and expansion opportunities to accelerate DAZN’s growth trajectory.
Foxtel is one of Australia’s leading media companies, with 4.7 million subscribers, who will benefit from DAZN’s extensive portfolio of sports content, platform technology, and global reach.
From its beginnings as Australia’s original pay-TV innovator, Foxtel has evolved to become a digital and streaming leader in sports and entertainment and the proposed transaction positions Foxtel for continued expansion as a digital-first, streaming-focused business. Foxtel will maintain its local character, led by the CEO, Patrick Delany, and his world-class management team.
DAZN, a sports streaming platform with a truly global reach, is committed to growing the global audience for domestic Australian sports across the 200 territories in which it is available.
Under the terms of the transaction, News Corp and Telstra will become minority shareholders in DAZN, enabling them to retain an interest in Foxtel.
Shay Segev, Chief Executive Officer of DAZN, said: “Australians watch more sport than any other country in the world, which makes this deal an incredibly exciting opportunity for DAZN to enter a key market, marking another step in our long-term strategy to become the global home of sport. Foxtel is a successful business that has undergone a remarkable digital transformation in recent years, and we are confident that our global reach and relentless pursuit of innovation will continue to drive the business forward and ensure long-term success.
“We are committed to supporting and investing in Foxtel’s television and streaming services, across both sports and entertainment, using our world-leading technology to further enhance the viewing experience for customers. We are also committed to using our global reach to export Australia’s most popular sports to new markets around the world, and we will continue to promote women’s and under-represented sports.
“We’re looking forward to working closely with Patrick Delany and his team, as well as News Corp and Telstra as shareholders in DAZN, to realise our ambitious vision for the future of sport entertainment.”
Siobhan McKenna, the Chairman of Foxtel, said the agreement with DAZN was international recognition of the transformation of Foxtel from an incumbent pay TV operator to a sports and entertainment digital and streaming leader. “Over the last seven years the Foxtel team, with the strong support of News, have achieved an extraordinary turnaround in an intensely competitive environment.”
Foxtel Group CEO, Patrick Delany, said: “Today’s announcement is a natural evolution for the Foxtel Group, having reinvented the company over the past five years as Australia’s most dynamic technology-led streaming company.
“Kayo and Foxtel provide Australian sports fans with access to the best Australian and international sport and shows, including AFL, NRL and Cricket with 4.7 million subscribers.
“We are excited by DAZN’s commitment to the Australian market. They are experts in the sports media business and can play a significant role in supporting Foxtel as the business grows its streaming capabilities, bringing a bigger and better service to customers across entertainment, news and sport. They are a perfect match for us as we look toward this next era of growth.
“We have been grateful for the support of News Corp while we reimagined the future of Foxtel. In 2019, when we merged Foxtel and Fox Sports we had many people questioning our future.
“After launching Kayo later in 2019 and BINGE in 2020, today we are the largest Australian-based streamer of sport and entertainment, we have stabilised our Foxtel base and launched Hubbl to help consumers find all the streamed content they love all in one place. This wouldn’t have been possible without the support and encouragement of News Corp.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
About DAZN
As a world-leading sports entertainment platform, DAZN streams over 90,000 live events annually and is available in more than 200 markets worldwide.
DAZN is the home of European football, women’s football, boxing and MMA, and the NFL internationally. The platform features the biggest sports and leagues from around the world – Bundesliga, Serie A, LALIGA, Ligue 1, Formula 1, NBA, Moto GP, and many more including the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
DAZN is transforming the way people enjoy sport. With a single, frictionless platform, sports fans can watch, play, buy, and connect. Live and on-demand sports content, anywhere, in any language, on any device – only on DAZN.
DAZN partners with leading pay-TV operators, ISPs and Telcos worldwide to maximise sports exposure to a broad audience. Its partners include Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Sky, Movistar, Telenet, Vodafone, and many more.
DAZN is a global, privately-owned company, founded in 2016, with more than 3,000 employees. The Group generated $3.2bn in revenue in 2023, having grown its annual revenues by over 50% on average from 2020 to 2023, through diverse revenue streams comprising subscriptions, advertising, sponsorship, and transactional. For more information on DAZN, our products, people, and performance, visit www.dazngroup.com.
About Foxtel
The Foxtel Group is one of Australia’s leading media companies with 4.7 million subscribers. Its businesses include subscription television, streaming, sports production and advertising. The Foxtel Group is owned 65% by News Corp and 35% by Telstra.
The Foxtel Group’s diversified business includes Fox Sports, Australia’s leading sports production company, famous for live sports and shows with the best commentators and personalities. It is also the home of local and global entertainment content and continues to be the partner of choice for the widest range of sports and international content providers based on established, long-term relationships, growing streaming audiences, and position as the largest Australian-based subscription television company.
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/dazn-advances-global-expansion-with-acquisition-of-foxtel-a-leading-australian-sports-and-entertainment-media-group-302337997.html
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President Emmerson Mnangagwa met this week with Zambia’s former Vice President and Special Envoy Enoch Kavindele to discuss SADC’s candidate for the AfDB
President Mnangagwa, who is SADC Chairperson, reaffirmed his own country’s and SADC’s enthusiastic support for Zambian candidate Sam Maimbo
LUSAKA, Zambia, Dec. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Special Envoy Kavindele released the following statement following the meeting:
“I am elated to witness the growing success and momentum of Sam Maimbo’s candidacy to become the next President of the African Development Bank. I am filled with gratitude to our friends across both SADC and COMESA for their continued support and good wishes.
Sam has garnered such wide consensus due to his being uniquely qualified to deliver the transformative change and empowerment our continent needs. Sam’s 30 years in development work is defined by driving outcomes, improving processes, and investing in people. The AfDB needs a hands-on leader who is laser focused on delivering results and who is unafraid of making tough decisions in order to best serve our continent. Sam is that leader. Sam has the track record and experience to drastically enhance the pace, scale, and impact of the Bank’s work in service of the people and governments of Africa.
Our region has a proud history of supporting fellow Southern Africans. For example, we all recall Lusaka’s role in hosting the African National Congress’ headquarters during the dark days of Apartheid oppression.
It therefore gives me no pleasure to observe my South African brothers, who have themselves leant on Zambia’s steadfast friendship over many decades, fail to rally behind both SADC and COMESA’s chosen candidate for the AfDB. Africa’s urgent economic development challenges demand transformational leadership at the AfDB, it is all of our responsibility to put forward the best candidate for the job. This is not the time or place for a government to act with narrow self-interest, we all must act in the continent’s and AfDB’s best interest.
I thank Sam Maimbo for his lifelong service to our entire continent, and I am eager to witness his enormous impact as President of the AfDB.”
Fintech PR
Stay Cyber Safe This Holiday Season: Heimdal’s Checklist for Business Security
LONDON, Dec. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Heimdal Security shares a practical holiday cybersecurity checklist, offering expert insights to help businesses safeguard against cyber threats this festive season.
With reduced staffing, remote work setups, and a surge in online shopping creating heightened vulnerabilities, this guide offers actionable tips to enhance business security.
Going beyond basic advice, the checklist also highlights the most common holiday scams and features videos showcasing real-life examples of Christmas-themed cyber scams and effective prevention strategies.
Key Tips to Protect Businesses This Holiday Season:
- Strengthen endpoints: Ensure devices are updated with antivirus and endpoint protection software; consider Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and application whitelisting.
- Prepare for phishing spikes: Train staff to identify suspicious emails, enforce robust email filters, and establish protocols for reporting unusual activity.
- Secure remote access: Mandate VPN usage, monitor unusual logins, and deactivate inactive accounts temporarily.
- Segment and shield networks: Isolate sensitive areas, deploy DNS security and advanced firewalls, and maintain full visibility over network traffic.
- Apply timely patches: Regularly update all systems and test patches in a controlled environment to minimize disruptions.
- Mitigate supply chain risks: Assess vendors thoroughly and limit their access to essential systems.
- Have a response plan ready: Tailor incident protocols for the holidays, create an on-call rotation for the IT team, and enable rapid action against suspicious activity.
“ Cybercriminals thrive on holiday distractions, but with proactive measures like phishing training, secure endpoints, and network segmentation, businesses can stay ahead of potential threats,” said Alex Panait, System Administrator at Heimdal Security.
Common Holiday Scams That Businesses Should Watch For:
Cybercriminals often tailor their tactics to exploit the festive season. The most common scams include:
- Spear phishing: Emails disguised as holiday bonuses or event invitations that steal credentials or spread malware.
- Malicious holiday E-Cards: Festive greetings that contain links deploying ransomware or spyware.
- Fake E-Commerce sites: Fraudulent websites offering discounts to steal payment information.
- Insider threats: Distracted or disgruntled employees mishandling or exploiting sensitive data.
- Corporate travel scams: Fake booking platforms targeting business travelers.
- Business email compromise (BEC): Fraudulent requests for urgent wire transfers during year-end financial rushes.
For more, read the full article here or watch the video on YouTube to see how these threats unfold and learn actionable prevention strategies.
About Heimdal:
Established in Copenhagen in 2014, Heimdal® empowers CISOs, security teams, and IT administrators to improve their security operations, reduce alert fatigue, and implement proactive measures through a unified command and control platform.
Heimdal’s award-winning cybersecurity solutions span the entire IT estate, addressing challenges from endpoint to network levels, including vulnerability management, privileged access, Zero Trust implementation, and ransomware prevention.
For further press information:
Madalina Popovici
Media Relations Manager
[email protected]
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/stay-cyber-safe-this-holiday-season-heimdals-checklist-for-business-security-302337465.html
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