Your insurance premium is about to rise like the sea levels

Climate change means disasters are becoming the norm. In New York, Superstorm Sandy racked up an estimated $50 billion in property damage and became the second costliest storm after Katrina. In California, wildfires ravaging the state making the 2018 season the deadliest and most destructive to date. Last week, major floods tormented Midwestern states as snowmelt and heavy rains overwhelmed rivers.

This is the reality that Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance firm, is preparing for, as in a new report it blamed global warming for the $24 billion of loses in the California wildfires. Currently, insurance companies don’t factor climate change into their coverage calculations. As they start to account for the inevitable warming and attendant floods, fires, and extreme weather, premium price hikes may make insurance difficult or even impossible to afford for everyday individuals in the very near future…

Hack Brief: FEMA Leaked the Data of 2.3 Million Disaster Survivors

After being displaced by a natural disaster, survivors have a lot of pressing concerns. They may be dealing with health impacts, displacement, loss of property, and even grieving the deaths of loved ones. Through all of this, though, one worry that is probably not in their minds is the question of whether their personal data is safe with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Unfortunately, what should be a given is apparently another burden to add to an already painfully long list.

On Friday, FEMA publicly acknowledged a Homeland Security Department Office of the Inspector General report that the emergency response agency wrongly shared personal data from 2.3 million disaster survivors with a temporary-housing-related contractor. In doing so, the agency violated the Privacy Act of 1974 and Department of Homeland Security policy, and exposed survivors to identity theft…