Affinion, the customer loyalty company best known for offering identity theft security and shoppers’ programs, recently launched a whole new program in the field of travel and leisure. Affinion, one of the ten largest travel and leisure agencies in the US, unveiled an “Everyday Travel Insurance” program that provides “perpetual travel insurance” that covers any trip more than 100 miles away from the customer’s home.

According to Affinion, Everday Travel Insurance covers all forms of travel, including car, air, train, or boat, and is available for families or individuals. “Whether it’s a weekend visit to the beach or an amusement park, driving the children to college, or visiting relatives over the holidays, we’re aiming to provide a travel plan to individuals and families to cover all of their travel routines,” said Tom Rusin, CEO of Affinion North America. “We’re challenging the notion that travel insurance should only cover the stand-alone, more expensive trips, and providing an affordable option so that anyone who even occasionally travels more than 100 miles from home can have consistent coverage.”

With a subscription based service, Affinion hopes to cut into the business provided by more traditional forms of trip-based insurance. This marketing campaign seeks to reshape people’s definition of a “trip” to include any long-distance trip. Affinion’s Everyday Travel Insurance includes $500 insurance for lost luggage, $150/day travel delay allowance, and 24 hour service.

Affinion, led by CEO Nathaniel Lipman,has provided comprehensive customer engagement and loyalty solutions for 35 years. Affinion partners with these leading companies to develop and market programs that provide services to their end-customers using their expertise in customer engagement, creative design, and product development. Affinion is also the parent company of customer loyalty solution company Trilegiant.

Corporate data breaches are on the serious rise. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the number of reported data breaches reported grew 47% in 2008 over 2007. Experts believe that situation will only grow worse in 2009.

The problem has become so widespread that the Federal Trade Commission has now mandated that the data security of all financial institutions, creditors, and other related business become more stringent by May 1, 2009. These strict new requirements are called the Red Flag Rules, which orders all these businesses to create, document, and execute exact procedures how they will respond to and prevent identity theft.

In response to these new federal regulations, The Affinion Security Center has published the Data Breach Response Guide. This free-to-download publication provides case studies, best practices, and sample written plans to deal with identity theft and data breaches, and how companies can comply with the Red Flag Rules.

The Affinion Security Center is very experienced in the field of data security. The company helps companies with data security through its BreachShield program, an all-inclusive system that includes support services, drafting of notification letters, and list management. The Affinion Security Center has recently supplemented BreachShield with CardCorps, a service that monitors chat rooms for stolen data and issues Automated Fraud Alerts for suspicious credit activities.

Tim Lukens, Senior Vice President of Corporate Solutions at Affinion Security Center, believes every company should carefully study the Data Breach Response Guide. “The Data Breach Response Guide contains valuable information on how to respond to a breach, alert customers, choose resolution services and defend a company financially and from reputational damage due to the devastating effects of data loss,” he said. “The guide comes to market at a critical time, as law enforcement develops stricter laws for companies that handle consumer data and harsher penalties for corporations that mismanage data breaches.”

The cost to business can be devastating. According to the Ponemon Institute 2009 survey, customers are likely to stop doing business with banks, health care companies and large retailers when a data breach occurs. The same study determined that more than 68% of the $6.65 million lost due to a data breach come from customer attrition.

The purpose of Affinion’s Data Breach Response Guide is to assist companies in setting up an “Incident Response Plan” to prepare for a possible data breach. The Guide also addresses how to protect a business relationship after a breach occurs. As the Affinion Security Center stresses, how fast a company responds to a security breach is of paramount importance. Not only a fast response limits the amount of data stolen or lost, but it also shapes how customers feel about a company’s safety.

Article Source: Affinion Security Center Publishes Data Breach Response Guide

• Verizon Breach Report challenges preconceived notions
• Chronicle of Data Breaches

Additional Affinion News:

• Affinion is profiled on the Forbes Largest Private Companies.
• Affinion Survey: Users Vulnerable To Tax and Employment Identity Theft
• Trilegiant secures patent for loyalty program
• Affinion Security Center Survey Finds Identity Theft Impacts Women More Than Men
• Affinion Group offering a $125 million add-on to its senior notes via Bank of America and Deutsche Bank.

Affinion Group Awarded Prestigious Information Security Certification

Global Marketer One of Only 50 U.S. Companies to Attain World-Class Credential

NORWALK, Conn., Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ Affinion Group, a leading global affinity marketer, has been awarded the prestigious ISO 27001 certification, the highest international standard for information security management globally. There are only approximately 50 companies in the United States carrying this leading-edge credential, and 4,100 companies worldwide.

Affinion is the only affinity marketer with this designation in the industry, and shares the certification with such leading U.S. companies and organizations as Bechtel Corp., Citigroup Technology, EDS, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and San Francisco, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Reuters America, Ricoh Electronics, Sun Microsystems, The World Bank Group, UNISYS, and Xerox Corp.

“This certification reaffirms Affinion’s longstanding commitment to establishing ourselves as leaders in information protection as we continuously seek to raise the bar for the practices in our industry,” said Robert G. Rooney, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Affinion Group. “We place the utmost priority on the protection of our customers and our clients, and taking this step demonstrates how important this is to us.”

ISO certification signifies that a company has implemented an information security management system that exceeds the most stringent security standards globally.

“Receiving this certification signals to the world that we proactively make information security a top business and management priority,” said Scott vonFischer, chief information security officer for Affinion. “By adopting the highest security standards in the industry we are leading the way as a world-class data security company for our clients, customers and partners.”

Affinion received the certification on Dec. 12. Certification lasts three years, but can only be retained through completion of comprehensive surveillance audits performed by BSI Americas, the certifying body, every six months.

Key attributes of Affinion’s information security management system include:
– Adoption of best practice across all information security domains
– Effective and efficient risk management
– Establishment of a robust security framework including operation, monitoring, review, maintenance and development
– Management’s commitment to continuously comply with security requirements
– Proactive security management, rather than reactive
– continuous evaluation through the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) model
– Systematic management of incidents with clear and timely escalation paths
– Independent evaluation of the Information Security Management System by external certification auditors
– Ease of understanding — a published international standard.

As the company continues to position itself on the leading-edge of information security in the direct marketing industry, it has established a solid foundation to build best practices in data protection in 2008 and beyond. A key priority in maintaining the highest standards of privacy is to work closely with current and future partners to insure that all information — either supplied or created through product development — is treated with the utmost confidentiality, integrity and protection. As part of this commitment, Affinion will leverage its stringent risk management strategies in the design, implementation and maintenance of an advanced information security management system.

Affinion is also dedicated to complying with all regulatory, voluntary and corporate standards, while establishing consistent policies that support its industry-leading information security position around the globe.

About Affinion

As a global leader with nearly 35 years of experience, Affinion Group
(www.affinion.com) enhances the value of its partners’ customer relationships by developing and marketing valuable loyalty, membership, checking account, insurance and other compelling products and services. Leveraging its expertise in product development and targeted marketing, Affinion helps generate significant incremental revenue for more than 5,200 affinity partners worldwide, including many of the largest and most respected companies in financial services, retail, travel, and Internet commerce. Based in Norwalk, Conn., the company has approximately 3,000 employees throughout the United States and in 14 countries across Europe. Affinion holds the prestigious ISO 27001 certification for the highest information security practices, is PCI compliant and Cybertrust certified.

Contacts:
Todd Smith, Office, +1-615-764-2598, Mobile, +1-615-202-7944; or Andrea Lindsley, Office, +1-615-780-3315, Mobile, +1-615-415-8886,

Related Affinion Business News

• Affinion announces recent change in management on PRNewswire.
• Affinion Group has a webinar regarding “Driving Consumer Demand in Volatile Economy.”
• Boston.com recently published a report about Affinion Group’s latest advances in data privacy and protection.
• Affinion subsidiary Trilegiant secures patent for online loyalty program