Intensifying cyber-attacks prompt major expansion of Beazley’s insurance coverage and services
November 14 2017 - 8:00AM
Responding to a fast mutating cyber threat that has significantly
raised the risks faced by small and mid-sized businesses,
specialist insurer Beazley has redesigned its market-leading
Beazley Breach Response (BBR) cyber policy.
Launched in 2009, BBR rapidly became the coverage of choice for
businesses holding large volumes of customer data. Three
years later, Beazley established BBR Services, still the only
in-house business unit maintained by an insurer exclusively to help
clients manage data breaches.
In the past two years, the hackers’ targets have multiplied,
with spear- phishing attacks and ransomware threatening major
economic damage to businesses of all kinds. In
particular, business interruption is presenting a major risk as
malicious attacks increase.
The new BBR, launched today, covers the universe of cyber risks
confronting small and mid-sized businesses, including business
interruption, in a streamlined 22 page policy. Extensive
advice on how best to minimize cyber risk is included alongside
robust coverage and response services to help clients manage data
breaches while maintaining customer confidence.
“Cyber-attacks – both targeted and scattergun – are on the
rise,” said Mike Donovan, global focus group leader for Beazley’s
technology, media and businesses services team. “No business
is immune. To address these risks, prevention and insurance
must go hand in hand. In the new BBR we have sought to
address all the ways – new and old – in which data can be diverted,
frozen, held to ransom or lost.
“Under the new BBR, our policyholders will also benefit from
risk management services provided by Lodestone Security, the
specialist advisory firm we established earlier this year to
address the unmet cyber security needs of small and mid-sized
businesses.”
The new BBR policy form includes:
- a full suite of breach response services, coordinated by BBR
Services, to identify the cause and scale of data breaches, alert
the affected individuals, and provide credit and identity
monitoring;
- first party coverage for cyber extortion;
- data recovery costs;
- business interruption resulting from security breaches and
system failures;
- contingent business interruption from security breaches and
system failures occurring at the policyholder’s vendors and
suppliers; and
- eCrime coverage for fraudulent instruction, funds transfer and
telephone fraud.
In expanding its coverage to address new cyber threats, Beazley
has built on the unique policy design that has made BBR a market
leading cyber insurance product, including multiple towers of
coverage that ensure that breach response costs covered under the
policy do not erode clients’ third party limits.
-ends-
Note to editors:
Beazley plc is the parent company of specialist insurance
businesses with operations in Europe, the US, Canada, Latin
America, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. Beazley manages six
Lloyd’s syndicates and, in 2016, underwrote gross premiums
worldwide of $2,195.6 million. All Lloyd’s syndicates are rated A
by A.M. Best.
Beazley’s underwriters in the United States focus on writing a
range of specialist insurance products. In the admitted market,
coverage is provided by Beazley Insurance Company, Inc., an A.M.
Best A rated carrier licensed in all 50 states. Certain Lodestone
services may not be available on an admitted basis at this time. In
the surplus lines market, coverage is provided by the Beazley
syndicates at Lloyd’s.
Beazley is a market leader in many of its chosen lines,
which include professional indemnity, property, marine,
reinsurance, accident and life, and political risks and contingency
business.
Certain Lodestone services may not be available on an admitted
basis at this time.
For more information please go to:
www.beazley.com
Bzpr_11_14_17
Eleanor Lewis
Beazley Group
+44 (0)20 7667 0538
eleanor.lewis@beazley.com
Deborah Kostroun
Ketchum
+1 201 403 8185
Deborah.kostroun@ketchumzito.com
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