Chubb’s quest to bridge the SME cyber protection gap

It’s the responsibility of cyber insurance carriers worldwide to raise awareness, says expert

Chubb’s quest to bridge the SME cyber protection gap

Chubb

By Bethan Moorcraft

Data breaches, electronic theft and vandalism, denial of service attacks, ransomware attacks and even copyright infringement are just some of the cyber risks confronting companies today.

Cyber risks are constantly evolving, but Chubb’s cyber team is dedicated to helping commercial entities understand the threats they face. Education and awareness campaigns are particularly important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – some of whom struggle to understand cyber as a risk to their business, and others who don’t know where to start to improve their risk profile.

Patrick Thielen, senior vice president, Chubb, commented: “A lot of hesitancy among SMEs around the purchase of cyber insurance coverage often stems from their understanding and handling of their own cyber controls, let alone how an insurance policy interacts with those.

“Historical objections from SMEs around cyber insurance include the arduous and complex application process and the simple acceptance of cyber exposure as a real and quantifiable threat to their business.”

These objections have been a key focus for Chubb in the insurer’s quest to bridge the cyber insurance protection gap among SMEs. For example, Chubb’s flagship product, Cyber Enterprise Risk Management (Cyber ERM), offers customizable solutions based on 20-years of claims data, to address the unique needs of individual risks of all sizes and across all industries. It includes an online quoting platform targeted at brokers offering cyber coverage to SMEs. This tool offers online quoting and real-time policy issuance for eligible small risks.

Thielen added: “It’s the responsibility of cyber insurance carriers worldwide to educate brokers and policyholders not just on policy forms, but also on claims and mitigation practices, such as the pre- and post-breach services that carriers like Chubb make available. At Chubb, that’s where we continue to focus our efforts to ensure we remain a market leader in raising cyber risk awareness at a global level.”

Pre-incident services include educational tools around password security, phishing campaigns, regulation compliance, and general employee cyber education. Post-breach services are centered around getting businesses back up and running after a cyber incident.

Insurers like Chubb, who offer these services in addition to risk transfer solutions, are changing the conversation with SMEs from policy comparison and price, to effective cyber risk management.

 


 

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