An Industry-First: A Better Framework for Cyber Risk

Let’s start with something we all know by now: cyber risk is real. And as our reliance on technology in the workplace increases, bad actors will look for opportunities to exploit it.

As we have seen from headlines over the past few years, ransomware is becoming more pervasive, and the most prominent malware threat. It is often sent via the web or as an email attachment and then spreads through employees who unwittingly allow transmission. And once one employee is compromised, many attacks can move laterally through the network, infecting enterprise resources, exfiltrating data and holding infrastructure hostage.

And unfortunately, a massive breach can result from just a single slip-up.

To make matters worse, when it comes to managing cyber risk, the information security field is suffering from negative unemployment, meaning the entire field has an abundance of roles but a dearth of talent to fill them. In fact, over 3.5 million jobs will go unfilled by 2021.

Moreover, we put resource-constrained IT teams in the unenviable and sisyphean task of staying on top of managing an increasingly complicated security posture —often with products from dozens of vendors that don’t work together.

One way to mitigate this risk is cyber insurance. You might assume that businesses would routinely include cyber insurance as part of their risk posture to cover the cost of potential breaches, but 68 percent of companies do not have it.

There are a number of reasons companies don’t employ insurance. They often underestimate the amount of cyber risk they face, overestimate the effectiveness of their security or they do not qualify because their baseline security health is insufficient.

A Way Forward

With all of this as a backdrop, today we are announcing a better way forward.

We can streamline access to the right tools and devices to make security postures more effective. And we can make it easier to facilitate access to enhanced cyber insurance to further reduce organizational risk and cover potential cyber losses.

With the right products, solutions, and ongoing security services, organizations can both improve their security posture and qualify for insurance that will reduce their cyber risk.

An Industry-First

This is why Cisco, Apple, Allianz and Aon are unveiling the industry’s first integrated solution designed to manage cyber risk associated with ransomware and other malware-related threats. It is comprised of cyber evaluations, holistic security technologies, secure devices, security services and enhanced cyber insurance coverage that all work together to strengthen a customer’s security posture.

Here’s how it works:

It starts with a streamlined cyber risk evaluation from Aon. This provides an analysis of an organization’s cyber defense posture and recommendations on how to strengthen it.

Organizations will then implement Cisco Ransomware Defense to protect employees’ devices from malware and ransomware, wherever they may be working. Companies will also deploy Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad and Mac, and benefit from having the most secure devices available to businesses.

With the strengthened cyber posture made possible by the technical foundations provided by Cisco and Apple, organizations can qualify for enhanced cyber insurance underwritten by Allianz for additional risk protection.

Our framework also provides access to additional cybersecurity expertise to augment IT team readiness and response in the case of a breach.

Organizations with this more effective security posture become more insurable and can qualify for more robust cyber insurance coverage than what generally exists today. This insurance has numerous enhancements with just a couple of them being lower or waived deductibles and coverage for business income loss due to a cybersecurity event.

This offering will be available for US-based companies now, with plans to expand globally in the near future.

To learn more about how we can work together to better manage cyber risk, contact us here or ask your seller, and we’ll be in touch to get started.