Tiptree's businesses are highly dependent upon the effective operation of their information systems and those of their third-party service providers and their ability to collect, use, store, transmit, retrieve and otherwise process personally identifiable information and other data, manage significant databases and expand and upgrade their information systems. Our businesses rely on these systems for a variety of functions, including marketing and selling their products and services, performing their services, managing their operations, processing claims and applications, providing information to customers, performing actuarial analyses and maintaining financial records. Some of these systems may include or rely on third-party systems not located on their premises or under their control. The interruption or loss of their information processing capabilities, or those of their third-party service providers, through cybersecurity attacks, computer hacks, theft, malicious software, phishing, employee error, ransomware, malware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering, viruses, worms, other malicious software programs, the loss of stored data, programming errors, the breakdown or malfunctioning of computer equipment or software systems, telecommunications and electrical failure or damage caused by weather or natural disasters, war, catastrophes, terrorist attacks, industrial accidents or any other significant disruptions or security breaches could harm our businesses by hampering their ability to generate revenues and could negatively affect their partner relationships, competitive position and reputation.
In addition, our business's information systems may be vulnerable to physical or electronic intrusions, computer viruses or other attacks which could disable their information systems and their security measures may not prevent such attacks. Such information systems are additionally vulnerable to security incidents from inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees, third-party vendors, contractors, consultants, business partners, or other third parties, or from cyberattacks by malicious third parties. There are numerous and evolving risks to cybersecurity and privacy from cyber threat actors, including criminal hackers, state-sponsored intrusions, industrial espionage and employee malfeasance. There is also a potential heightened risk of cybersecurity incidents as a result of geopolitical events outside of our control, such as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, as well as other geographical conflicts. Global cybersecurity threats can range from uncoordinated individual attempts to gain unauthorized access to our IT systems and those of our business partners or third-party service providers to sophisticated and targeted measures known as advanced persistent threats. These cyber threat actors are becoming more sophisticated and coordinated in their attempts to access IT systems and data, including the IT systems of cloud providers and third parties with whom our businesses conduct or may conduct business. Although our businesses devote significant resources to prevent, detect, address and mitigate unwanted intrusions and other threats and protect their systems and data, whether such data is housed internally or by external third parties, such internal controls may not be adequate or successful in protecting against all security breaches and cybersecurity attacks, social-engineering attacks, computer break-ins, theft and other improper activity. Our businesses have experienced immaterial cybersecurity incidents and they and their third-party service providers will likely continue to experience cybersecurity incidents of varying degrees. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently, generally are not recognized until launched against a target and can originate from a wide variety of sources, our businesses and the third parties with whom they do business may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures effective against all such security threats. With the increasing frequency of cyber-related fraud to obtain inappropriate payments and other threats related to cybersecurity attacks, our businesses may find it necessary to expend resources to remediate cyber-related incidents or to enhance and strengthen their cybersecurity. Such remediation efforts may not be successful and could result in interruptions, delays or cessation of service.
Our businesses have also implemented physical, administrative and logical security systems with the intent of maintaining the physical security of their facilities and systems and protecting their and their customers' confidential and personally identifiable information against unauthorized access through their information systems or by other electronic transmission or through misdirection, theft or loss of data. Despite such efforts, they have in the past, and may in the future, be subject to a breach of their security systems that results in unauthorized access to their facilities or the information they are trying to protect. Anyone who is able to circumvent their security measures or those of their third-party service providers and penetrate their information systems could access, view, misappropriate, alter, destroy, misuse or delete any information in such systems, including personally identifiable information and proprietary business information (their own or that of third parties) or compromise of their control networks or other critical systems and infrastructure, resulting in disruptions to their business operations or access to their financial reporting systems. While our businesses have implemented business contingency plans and other reasonable plans to protect their systems, sustained or repeated system failures or service denials could severely limit their ability to write and process new and renewal business, provide customer service or otherwise operate in the ordinary course of business. In addition, most states require that customers be notified if a security breach results in the disclosure of personally identifiable customer information and the trend toward general public notification of such incidents could exacerbate the harm to our companies' business, financial condition and results of operations. Any failure, interruption or compromise of the security of our business's information systems or those of their third-party service providers that result in inappropriate disclosure of such information could result in, among other things, significant financial losses, unfavorable publicity and damage to their reputation, governmental inquiry and oversight, difficulty in marketing their services, loss of customers, significant civil and criminal liability related to legal or regulatory violations, litigation and the incurrence of significant technical, legal and other expenses, any of which may have a material adverse effect on their business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. Additionally, the costs related to significant security breaches or disruptions could be material and cause our businesses to incur significant expenses, and any cybersecurity insurance that our businesses may have in place may not cover such expenses.
In some cases, our businesses rely on the safeguards put in place by third parties to protect against security threats. These third parties, including vendors that provide products and services for their operations, could also be a source of security risk to them in the event of a failure or a security incident affecting such third parties' own security systems and infrastructure. If the information technology systems of our business's third-party service providers become subject to disruptions or security breaches, our businesses may have insufficient recourse against such third parties and our businesses may have to expend significant resources to mitigate the impact of such an event and to develop and implement protections to prevent future events of this nature from occurring. Our business's network of ecosystem partners could also be a source of vulnerability to the extent their applications interface with our businesses, whether unintentionally or through a malicious backdoor. Our businesses do not review the software code included in third-party integrations in all instances.