Cyber|Decider created by cyber risk and incident response specialists STORM Guidance, initially provides detailed comparisons on 16 different policies from leading cyber insurers, covering around 80% of the current market.
Neil Hare-Brown, the CEO of Cyber|Decider said: “Until now, the inability for brokers to easily compare policies has been a real handbrake on the development of the cyber insurance market. Cyber|Decider makes this a thing of the past, effectively providing brokers and others with a straightforward comparison for these complex and variable policies.
“For instance, for the numerous brokers without a specialist cyber team, analysing policies involves a lot of work for a small part of the overall client premium. Consequently, many only offer one policy, but this will invariably not be the best policy for many of their clients as it will not cover areas that are important for them or, conversely, they will be paying for additional coverage they don’t want.
“To solve this, over the past nine months we have been working with insurers, brokers and others in London and elsewhere to develop a clear, consistent and ultra-easy-to-use product.
“Currently only around 10% of SME businesses in Britain have cyber insurance, but the prominent ransomware attacks this year have already increased the number looking for cover, not least because many are realising that the possible costs of attacks are getting too great for them to simply absorb.
“But many policies actually do not include important business interruption costs from such attacks, so Cyber|Decider will help brokers capitalize on this growth in demand as they can now confidently offer the right policy without having to spend days going through numerous policies with a fine-tooth comb.”
Speaking at its launch event in Lloyd’s last week, international lawyer Celso de Azevedo, the co-founder and Committee Coordinator of the recently created Cyber Insurance Association (the forum of professionals in London involved in cyber insurance) welcomed the launch of Cyber|Decider.
He said: “London is one of the very few markets with the depth and expertise in the cyber insurance market for a product such as Cyber|Decider to emerge. Given the lack of standardisation in cyber insurance policies, the detail it synthesises is a huge achievement. As this market matures, it will help drive improvements and clarity.”
Examples of problems brokers currently face when dealing with cyber insurance policies:
• Policies often use different definitions and terms for the same thing, or include the same thing under different headings and sections - making policy comparison both time-consuming and laborious.
• Often policies use different definitions, right down to the most basic elements like “what is a computer”. For instance, some policies include industrial control systems in their definition and some don’t, a pretty vital distinction for many businesses!
• There is a high and surprising variability of what is covered between different policies. For instance, while most policies are pretty similar in their coverage of privacy issues, there is a lot of disparity around business interruption issues
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