Underwriter targets 'significant gap' in cybercrime policies

Cybercrime costs businesses $400bn every year but with few insurers building policies that suit individual territories, one underwriter is attempting to make sure Australia’s needs are met.

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Specialist lines underwriting agency, CFC has redesigned its cybercrime policy to include crucial new coverage such as telephone hacking and wire fraud.

The CPM also tackles phishing scams, identity theft and cyber extortion.

“There is a significant gap in the market for cyber cover that resonates with companies all over the world; we sought to address that with our CPM redesign,” CFC director Graeme Newman said.  “In the US, purchasing a cyber-policy is mainstream due to the class action culture and tough privacy and data breach legislation. But in the rest of the world, other concerns such as business interruption, system damage and, in particular, cybercrime are top of the agenda.”

CPM is a fully combined modular policy that is tailored to the individual needs of companies operating in every single territory across the world. Features of the policy include comprehensive cybercrime cover, both first and third party privacy breach notification costs, and business interruption cover which covers lost revenue during system downtime and the loss of future revenue due to consequential reputational harm. CPM does not impose a retroactive date so there is no restriction on when an event which gave rise to a claim occurred.

"Cybercrime is now one of the fastest growing areas of crime in the world and worth almost as much as the drugs trade. Every year criminals are targeting companies of every size and in every market to the tune of almost $400bn.  Many insurers, however, have failed to embrace these differences and build policies that are appropriate for each individual territory," he added.

 

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