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In December 2022, Raleigh-based Builders Mutual Insurance Company experienced a significant data breach that compromised the personal information of tens of thousands of individuals. The breach was first detected on December 14, 2022, when the company noticed suspicious activity within its computer network. Builders Mutual immediately engaged third-party cybersecurity specialists to investigate the incident.
By the following day, investigators confirmed that certain files had been copied from the network, prompting a thorough review to determine the extent and nature of the compromised data.
Later disclosures found that 64,761 individuals were ultimately affected, including names, social security numbers, medical information, health insurance information, and workers’ compensation data.
Builders Mutual undertook a detailed review to identify all affected individuals. The company offered affected parties a year of free credit monitoring, information on placing fraud alerts and security freezes with credit bureaus, and guidance on obtaining free credit reports. The company also paid out $1.475 million to affected parties.
The breach mirrors a broader trend of increasing cyberthreats facing the construction and insurance sectors. The Dodge Construction Network and content security and management company Egnyte reported that 59 percent of firms surveyed reported they had experienced a cybersecurity threat in the last two years. The report urged organizations to use every available resource to detect and preempt attacks, protect sensitive data, and respond transparently and effectively when breaches occur.
Jesus Unzueta had barely joined Builders Mutual as head of information technology when the incident occurred. Unzueta’s history of delivering successful, enterprise-wide initiatives, infrastructure management, digital transformation, and information security didn’t have time to make its mark before the breach occurred, but the executive helped his organization navigate the crises nonetheless.
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Unzueta came to Builders Mutual with the goal of making a difference. He knew the company was actively supporting its Hispanic community, and the IT leader wanted to help the organization’s continued expansion. The data breach quickly created a new set of priorities.
The executive spent a great deal of his time rebuilding Builders Mutual’s first line of cybersecurity defense and building out an information security roadmap. That required shutting down the company’s entire IT infrastructure and creating a new one, a massive lift for any IT organization.
It also meant redefining IT roles and engaging in a significant multiyear transformation. Unzueta’s team of sixty-five came to include an offshore Indian tech team able to provide support around the clock.
As a brand-new leader at the company, Unzueta says the data breach was a massive event that helped draw attention to the importance of IT investment. The company had never experienced a data breach before, and the IT leader says he’d never worked through such a seismic event before, one that took about a year to fully resolve.
Unzueta says that while it was extremely early in his tenure, he had to have the courage to stand up and let leadership know that the company’s current IT trajectory wouldn’t ensure future success. He’s proud that the organization listened and allowed him to chart a new direction for the IT organization.
Many in IT leadership roles would have considered this a disaster, and while Unzueta says the breach was a terrible experience, it’s one he’s grateful to have had the pleasure to help the company work through.
More personally, Unzueta says he hopes that the influence of his parents has shown through in his work and in the way he leads. He also hopes that influence has been felt by his children at home.
When not battling massive data breaches, the technology leader can be found spending time with his six kids. He also maintains a woodworking business on the side and loves remodeling homes.
DXC Technology helps global companies run their mission-critical systems and operations while modernizing IT, optimizing data architectures, and ensuring security and scalability across public, private and hybrid clouds. DXC Technology is the world’s largest provider of insurance software and business process services for the insurance industry. With unparalleled core technology, domain expertise, software and services, and world-class ecosystem of partners, DXC helps insurers achieve their business objectives. DXC protects, extends and transforms technology estates across all lines of business: life and wealth, property and casualty, commercial and specialty, broking, reinsurance, claims and self-insureds. Learn more at: www.dxc.com.
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