Imbert: No critical NIB information compromised in cyber attack

FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert says the National Insurance Board (NIB) did not suffer any loss of critical information as a result of a cyber attack last December.

He also said the NIB has reported an increase in the number of employers registering with it, an increase in payments to some beneficiaries, an increase in employment injury benefits, an increase in its contribution income and a decline in its investment portfolio for the financial year ended June 2024.

Imbert made these statements as he laid the NIB’s report for this period in the House of Representatives on November 22.

He recalled NIB was the target of a ransomware attack on December 27.

“However, subsequent forensic analysis by the NIB’s cyber-security specialists revealed no evidence of data exfiltration and no expected risk to sensitive customer information held by the NIB.”

Imbert said the incident was a catalyst for the company “to reinforce its systems by re-evaluating its cyber-security strategies and fortifying its defences.”

For the financial year ended June 30, he continued, the number of new employers registering with NIB increased by just 0.55 per cent to 1,647 from 1,638 in 2023.

“The active employer population increased by 1.05 per cent to 19,341 in 2024, from 19,140 in 2023.”

On employee registration, he said, 25,575 applications for processing in the financial year were determined.

“Of these, 19,830 or 77.5 percent were new insured persons added to the database in 2024, an increase of 296, or 1.5 per cent, when compared with 19,534 new registrants in 2023.

“As at June 30, 2024, 226,618 beneficiaries received a total of $6.5 billion in benefit payments, which represented an increase in expenditure of 5.45 per cent over the $6,164,000,000 recorded in the previous period.”

The number of long-term beneficiaries increased by 3.49 per cent to 202,608 people in 2024, from 195,859 in 2023.

“Payment to this group, long-term beneficiaries, totalled $6.232 billion, or 95.9 per cent of the total benefit expenditure recorded in 2024, an increase of 5.99 per cent over the $5,880, 000, 000 of the total benefit expenditure recorded in 2023.

“The retirement pension accounted for the largest component of long-term benefits, totalling $5.2 billion, or 83.45 per cent of long-term benefit expenditure.”

The number of short-term beneficiaries decreased by 14.6 per cent from 23,292 in 2023 to 19,877 in 2024.

Imbert said, “Payments to short-term beneficiaries totalled $193.5 million or 2.98 per cent of total benefit expenditure. This represents a decrease of 3.4 per cent from $211.9 million in financial year 2023.”

He added, “Recipients of funeral grants accounted for the largest portion (47.50 per cent) of short-term beneficiaries while the maternity benefit also accounted for a high percentage of short-term benefit expenditure. “

Employment injury benefits payment totalled $74.2 million, or 1.14 percent of total benefit expenditure over this period.

Imbert said, “This represents an increase of 3.23 per cent over total employment injury benefit expenditure for 2023 of $71.9 million. There was a 1.82 per cent decrease in the number of beneficiaries, from 4,130 in 2023 to 4,055 in 2024.

“Employment injury beneficiaries accounted for just 1.8 per cent of the total number of beneficiaries.”

Contribution income collected for the financial year ended June 2024 was $4,748,900,000 billion.

Imbert said this was a total of $348 million above the budgeted estimate of $4.4 billion.

“Income from penalties and interest amounted to $13 million, an increase of $1.3 million from the $11.7 million collected in 2023.”

With respect to investments, as at June 30, 2024, the market value of the NIB’s investment portfolio was $27 billion

Imbert said this reflected a $950 million, or 3.38 per cent, decline over the fund size as at June 30, 2023.

“The decline in the portfolio’s market value was mainly attributable to approximately $370 million in unrealised losses as well as the withdrawal of $1,960 million to finance the National Insurance System deficit during the financial year.”

He said during the reporting period, the global economy continued to cope with escalating geopolitical tension, and the growing trend of de-globalisation and trade protectionism.

“These factors contributed to a degree of stagnation in many western economies over 2023. However, there was some rebound in economic activity towards the latter half of the financial year.”