Emergence Insurance revamps cyber policy

Cyber specialist underwriting agency Emergence Insurance (Emergence) has announced a significant update to the policy wording of its flagship product, the cyber event protection policy, also known as CEP-005. It marks the eighth enhancement of the product within a span of nine years.

According to Emergence CEO Troy Filipcevic, the rapid pace at which cyber threats evolve necessitates ongoing revisions to policy wording to ensure that clients are safeguarded against new and emerging risks. 

“We’re offering brokers, and their clients, additional coverage and have introduced free advisory services as part of the policy core to help insureds become better risks,” he said.

Key changes for cyber policy

The advisory services, available to CEP-005 policyholders through cyberSuite Pty Ltd, a related entity, encompass:

• a one-hour consultation with a cyber security analyst;
• access to template documents such as incident response plans;
• threat intelligence via 24/7 scanning of the insured’s internet-facing infrastructure; and
• dark web monitoring.

A notable change in the policy wording is the elimination of the excess for businesses with annual turnovers under $25 million, a move designed to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Australia.

“This is a major bonus for Australian SMEs that may be hard hit if they need to claim on their policies,” Filipcevic said. “Our underwriting portal continues to enable brokers to quote and bind risks with an annual turnover of up to $75 million. Larger risks are underwritten by our underwriting team.”

Other updates

The CEP-005 update also extends coverage in several key areas, including business interruption losses due to cyber events at an IT contractor’s business, system failure-related business interruption, response costs from cyber events affecting IT contractors or data processors, and coverage for criminal financial loss from push payment theft.

Additionally, the update introduces new optional cover for D&O claims related to cyber-themed wrongful acts.

Filipcevic underscored the importance of the policy update.

“The policy wording reflects feedback from brokers about what their clients need. Emergence has built a dedicated team of experts across Australia, and now in New Zealand, who are raising the bar in promoting cyber protection awareness,” he said.