Cyber crime and data breaches cost the global economy $445 billion annually – and that has spurred one insurer to create a product specific for business clients.
Industrial insurance specialist
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (
AGCS) has announced the availability of new cyber security coverage in the wake of growing cyber criminality threatening Canadian companies.
“The sheer number and evolving sophistication of security threats renders it virtually impossible for any organization to guarantee total security. Thus, effective risk transfer is an important tool for the risk manager,” says Terri Mason, head of Professional Indemnity for AGCS Canada. “Companies are facing attacks on a daily basis.”
AGCS is Allianz Group’s dedicated carrier for corporate and specialty insurance business.
A recent study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies shows that cyber crime and data breaches now cost the global economy approximately $445 billion annually.
Those numbers are backed up by research from Ponemon Institute, indicating the average cost to a company of a data breach was $3.7 million.
Another study from Ponemon shows 56 per cent of Canadian companies that were surveyed said their respective organization is not protected from advanced cyber attacks, and 59 per cent said they do not believe they have sufficient security to prevent cybercriminals from stealing corporate information. (continued.)
Why is cyber liability coverage only now taking off as a product? Look in the September issue of Insurance Business to find out.
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“Hackers can infiltrate small and mid-size businesses with devastating financial and reputational consequences,” said Mason. “We have also seen criminals hacking into the systems of smaller firms as a way of ‘piggy-backing’ access to the larger companies they partner with.”
The main elements of the Allianz cover product include:
- a comprehensive policy offering cover up to a limit of $75 million and covering a broad range of cyber exposures;
- three levels of business interruption cover that can be customized to a client’s unique needs; and
- immediate access to an IT crisis response team to resolve the incident with a full range of services, including IT forensic services, (such as notification services and credit monitoring services, as needed), media crisis management services and specialist legal services.
