A trillion dollars is an astounding amount of money – yet that’s how much experts expect organizations around the world to spend collectively to help ensure the security of their computing environments this year, according to cybersecurity news outlet CSO.
And it’s not just big businesses that are expected to invest heavily in security. More than 70% of ransomware incidents affect companies with fewer than 1,000 employees and less than $50 million in revenue, according to Coveware, a ransomware recovery solutions provider. Why? Typically, companies with less money and fewer resources don’t have the cybersecurity tools needed to monitor threats.
Canada is a popular target for ransom-ware attacks. This summer, the Russia-based Conti ransomware group hacked three small and medium-sized firms in Canada, including an internet provider, an engineering firm and an insurance broker – providing more evidence that cybercriminals aren’t just after big enterprises.
“There has been more change in the Canadian cyber market in the last 12 months than there has been in the last 20 years,” says Lindsey Nelson, cyber development leader at CFC, “and Canadian companies are being disproportionately affected by ransomware claims compared with anywhere else in the world.”
Partly in response to these developments, Victor Canada is now offering Victor Cyber, a comprehensive, proactive and financially viable cyber insurance option.
“Victor has collaborated with CFC to expand our cyber insurance program to better meet the needs of our brokers and their clients,” says David Cook, president of Victor Canada. “The new product is a full-package cyber insurance solution that offers competitively priced coverage coupled with a broad range of risk management and loss mitigation tools.”
Designed to meet the needs of the evolving threat landscape, the solution alerts policyholders to potential security compromises, rather than simply paying out claims.
“We are keenly aware that most businesses require a proactive, service-driven solution that includes a full range of risk management and incident response tools, rather than a reactive insurance policy where organizations only respond when a cyber-attack occurs,” says Kevin Auger, department leader and senior vice-president of technology, cyber and errors & omissions at Victor Canada.
Victor Cyber provides cyber insurance with broad coverage for technology-related risks. Backed by a 100-member-strong team of incident response specialists, the coverage also delivers cyber incident response services that cover costs related to legal and regulatory IT security, forensics, privacy breach management, and third-party breach and post-remediation.
In addition, the product offers cyber-crime support, systems damage and busi-ness interruption services, network security and privacy liability, media liability support, and a suite of risk management services. The Victor Cyber policy also provides access to the Victor Response app, which is based on a CFC mobile app created to detect security alerts and offer help quickly.
“It is designed to give customers access to proactive threat alerts specific to their business, free cybersecurity advice through the Ask the Expert section and the quickest way to notify of a claim should a cyber-attack happen,” Nelson says. “And, critically, through the Tools section, customers can enable a range of risk management tools such as deep scanning to find vulnerabilities, dark web monitoring for things like stolen login credentials, and phishing simulations to help employees learn what to look for.”
This new offering builds on several years of Victor Canada providing cyber insurance solutions for the small commercial market. During that time, the company has handled a variety of cybersecurity events. In one incident, cybercriminals installed ransomware on a policyholder’s network, demanding a ransom of 2.5 bitcoin (approximately $120,000). Victor was able to help the client wipe their server and restore operations with backup data. Forensics and breach counsel representatives then reviewed the situation and made sure the problem had been properly neutralized.
In another event, a cybercriminal launched a sophisticated email phishing scheme on an unsuspecting law firm. Once it had discovered the problem, the firm tried to contact the banks and other financial institutions that had wired the money out of the country – to no avail. As a result, Victor covered the client for $250,000.
Now, through its collaboration with CFC, Victor is poised to take on new challenges. “Working with CFC has provided a great opportunity to collaborate between our two organizations and better assist our brokers and their clients with their evolving cyber needs,” Cook says.
“Victor’s commitment to bringing this important coverage to more Canadian businesses is second to none,” Nelson adds. “CFC is one of the largest writers of cyber insurance globally, backed by the largest dedicated underwriting and security teams to support policyholders. Combined with Victor’s brand and scale in the Canadian market, I believe that together we can raise awareness about the need for cyber coverage that provides proactive security support, as well as access to experts should the worst happen.”
Auger notes that “many of our competitors provide a cyber insurance product; however, very few are providing a complete insurance package with broad coverage coupled with cutting-edge risk management services. Our new cyber product will help companies better understand their cyber risk exposures, while at the same time providing access to the cyber tools and information they’ll need to better monitor, mitigate and manage these exposures.”
That’s great news for new clients, but what about those who already have a cyber insurance policy in place through Victor?
“There will be no disruption of service for existing Victor cyber policyholders as a result of our new cyber product offering,” Cook says. “We will continue to provide policy-holders with cyber liability solutions that evolve to better address changing conditions. Our dedicated Victor team will continue to be available to assist brokers and their clients with their cyber needs.”
