Partner Article

Insurers join forces to fight cyber-crime

A North East specialist insurance broker has unveiled an innovative product designed to support businesses during a cyber-crime attack.

ProCyber is a dedicated cyber protection for all professional industries in the UK developed by commercial and corporate insurance firm, Erimus, in partnership with market-leading insurance provider, Hiscox.

The product can protect businesses of any size that experience a data breach or malicious hack affecting their computer systems. Developed to improve processes and systems for clients, it is pioneering in its use of technology in the insurance market.

Erimus and Hiscox took a revolutionary, collaborative approach to benefit customers, using artificial intelligence and machine learning, as digital technology is very much at the forefront of consideration in most industries.

Through the product policy, organisations are provided with; IT forensic consultants to lockdown a breach and prevent any further losses, a legal team to manage any breach notifications and a PR team to manage the publicity surrounding the incident, in addition to the cost of any lost earnings due to system downtime.

Ian Miller, sales director at Erimus, said: “We were delighted to work with Hiscox on this product, something more and more businesses require in this ever more digital era.

“Cyber criminals are opportunistic and persistent, continually looking for the chink in your virtual armour. Without this type of insurance, businesses suffer significant costs arising from data breach, including lost business, regulatory investigations, customer communication, data asset losses, court fees and settlements.”

Across the industry, prevention is considered the best form of defence and an additional benefit to clients, ProCyber offers access to Hiscox’s CyberClear Academy. The online training platform allows businesses to ensure all members of staff are ‘cyber aware’ and help to mitigate any potential breaches.

Ian added: “Unfortunately, even the most diligent of employees can be duped into clicking or downloading malware or paying bogus invoices. If a breach does occur the only option is an expensive team of private consultants. ProCyber offers a high level of reassurance for businesses, ensuring that a customer is supported from the moment a breach occurs through our team of experts and helping to prevent these types of attacks from taking place.”

An additional feature of ProCyber is the implementation of Hiscox CyberClear wording - which received a 10/10 score from Insurance Times - combined with the innovative use of artificial intelligence. This allows continual monitoring and improvement of the customer journey, ensuring the process of buying insurance is as transparent and easy as possible.

The threat of cyber-attacks is growing year on year with 47 percent of small firms reporting an incident in 2019, increasing to 63 percent for medium sized enterprises. According to Hiscox the average cost of a cyber incident to a smaller business is approximately $9,000 (£7,300) and soaring to $369,000 (almost £300,000) for large firms.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Harvey & Hugo .