Generali Global Assistance Partners With University of Texas at Austin Center for Identity

BETHESDA, MD--(Marketwired - Dec 13, 2016) - Generali Global Assistance ("GGA" or "the Company"), a leader in the assistance industry since its founding in 1963 and part of the global Generali Group, and the developer of the Iris® identity protection platform, today announced that it has partnered with The University of Texas at Austin Center for Identity ("the Center") for education, research, and advocacy initiatives in the identity protection arena. GGA will collaborate with the Center to advance its mission to deliver impactful insight, applications and outreach to promote excellence in identity management, privacy, and security.

The University of Texas at Austin Center for Identity, established in 2010, partners with experts from a variety of disciplines in order to advance identity research and education, and to solve identity challenges that impact personal security, commerce, government services, and national security. The Center advocates for an interdisciplinary, 360° approach to protecting against identity theft, fraud and abuse, with education as the cornerstone of its initiatives. As a strategic partner, Generali Global Assistance will provide valued input helping the Center to shape and prioritize its research and educational pursuits, in order to understand today's challenges and deliver tomorrow's solutions.

Under terms of the partnership, Paige Schaffer, President and COO of Generali Global Assistance's Identity and Digital Protection Services Global Unit, will serve on the Center's board of advisors. Leveraging her subject matter expertise in identity protection and restoration services, she will join with other advisory board members to advance research and education programs delivering innovative advances to mitigate current, and future, identity threats. Additionally, Ms. Schaffer has significant domain experience in the insurance, emergent medical travel assistance, medical claims and e-commerce sectors, and her insights into the identity issues impacting these industries will be invaluable to the Center's activities. Ms. Schaffer was the visionary behind Generali Global Assistance's Iris® identity protection portal, and has spearheaded the evolution of the Company's Identity Protection services for close to a decade. She proudly holds Identity Leadership Certification from The University of Texas at Austin Center for Identity.

Ms. Schaffer commented on today's news, "We are excited to partner with the Center and to share our perspectives on identity protection, including those specific insights gleaned from our experiences with clients across a variety of industries. This partnership is a natural fit because Generali Global Assistance is a leader in the identity protection, insurance and assistance sectors, and we uniquely understand the challenges facing both consumers and corporate organizations. The Center provides a comprehensive, thoughtful forum to review the most critical identity management issues facing all industries, and we are proud to provide resources to deepen its research and educational pursuits. I look forward to engaging other business leaders as well as key regulators and policy makers involved with the Center as I take on an active role with the advisory board."

Generali Global Assistance has protected the assets of organizations and their customers for over 50 years, and was one of the first companies to offer identity theft protection and resolution services in the United States. The Company's Iris® identity protection platform addresses all areas of need for companies and their customers, offering prevention, monitoring, alerts, award-winning resolution services, and identity theft insurance. Iris® provides educational resources on identity protection best practice, privacy protection software including anti-phishing and password protector tools, credit tracking across all three credit agencies, and monitors activity across the entire spectrum of the Internet, including the Dark Web. The award-winning Iris® resolution team provides white glove service to customers who have been victims of identity theft, and assists with IRS identity theft services, affidavit submission, creditor notification and follow-up, and more. 

Dr. Suzanne Barber, Director of The University of Texas at Austin Center for Identity, commented, "Our partnership with Generali Global Assistance provides the Center with high-caliber expertise that will contribute to our multidisciplinary research and education programs addressing critical identity management challenges. As the issues surrounding identity theft continue to evolve and grow exponentially, there has never been a more urgent need to partner with industry-leading organizations such as GGA. We look forward to collaborating with the Company to advance our research and education mission to combat identity theft, fraud and abuse, and deliver advances for identity security and privacy as we work alongside Paige Schaffer and her team."

More information about the Iris® identity protection platform is available at www.IrisIdentityProtection.com.

About Generali Global Assistance (GGA)
Generali Global Assistance (GGA), formerly Europ Assistance in the U.S., is based in Bethesda, Maryland, and has been a leader in the assistance industry since its founding in 1963. GGA is a brand of Europ Assistance Group and part of the multinational Generali Group, which for over 185 years has created a presence in 60 countries with over 76,000 employees. Our success has been built on the foundation of trust that clients have placed in our ability to provide assistance in the most difficult of circumstances.