Paul Perry
Paul Perry is a man on a mission. As the leader of Warren Averett’s Risk and Controls division, he is involved in assessing, preventing, and remediating their clients’ cyber security challenges. Perry has spent significant time with small and large TPA firms – so how would he rate the cyber threat preparedness of the industry? “I’ll give the TPA industry a ‘C- Grade’ when it comes to cyber preparedness and here’s why.”
“The TPA industry consists of large firms and tiny firms. The big firms are keeping up with the cyber trends and requirements but the small ones invest little to nothing or rely heavily on others; they still run like practices or startups. They think that it won’t happen to them,” Perry explains.
Perry is bullish on cyber education and regularly travels from coast to coast sharing his expertise. He receives the INFRAGARD reports which are a collaborative effort between the FBI, Homeland Security, and the Private Sector. The information shared, while sensitive, is designed to share real world information about clear and present dangers. Perry then relays this information through his business network and Warren Averett’s client base.
“I really believe that by sharing information we will protect all TPA’s. This is one area where we should not compete and, instead, we should collaborate. Rising tides raise all boats. Any major breach for a TPA is a threat to all of us and our credibility,” says Perry.
Warren Averett came on to PensionPro in 2016 and are now in the process of transferring all of its TPA operations to PensionPro. “The security culture that PensionPro emits is refreshing,” proclaims Perry. “The fact that they have a SOC 2 Report is impressive and gives me a level of confidence that their Cyber ethos mirror ours at Warren Averett.”
