The first US Secretary of Homeland Security has announced a start-up cyber insurance and assessment company, using five cyber Lloyd’s Syndicates.
From London on October 6, Ridge Insurance Solutions Company was introduced to provide “packaged, customized assessment capabilities and insurance.”
“Insurance need not be just a ‘policy’ written by an agent, but a true focal point for assessing, identifying and correcting the impact of cyber risk on your business”, said Ridge, former governor of Pennsylvania and chairman of Ridge Insurance Solutions Company, in a statement. “This is not just about insurance but helping and incentivizing companies to manage their cyber operations more effectively.”
Tom Ridge is the keynote speaker for Advisen’s Cyber Risk Insights Conference on October 28
Guy Carpenter serves as the broker. “Working closely with Tom Ridge and his team, we were able to help them establish the parameters of the solution, place the facility into the Lloyd’s market and also to arrange the supporting reinsurance program,” said Nick Gralton, managing director of North American Casualty at Guy Carpenter.
Though it will count larger companies as clients, Washington DC-based Ridge Insurance Solutions looks to focus on small- and mid-size companies with market capitalization of less than $500 million. Ridge said this represents about 80 percent of publicly quoted companies in the US. Many business of this size, without the resources of larger peers, can be devastated by the consequences of a cyber breach.
Small and medium-sized enterprises “drive employment in America and around the world,” said Ridge.
“They drive innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity,” he added. “Working together with the Lloyd’s syndicates, we have developed a cyber insurance product uniquely designed to help that class of business – to better protect unsuspecting customers from hackers and help ensure that these job creators have an opportunity to flourish and grow.”
Policies with limits of $50 million are available immediately.
Tom Ridge
Boards of directors will have access to unique cyber insurance that leverages sector- and company-specific intelligence, “rejecting the ’cookie-cutter’, process-oriented approach inherent in most cyber insurance offerings today,” Ridge Insurance Solutions said.
Earlier this year, Ridge and former White House Cyber Czar Howard A. Schmidt formed a joint business relationship with PwC to help advise C-Suite executives and board members on managing cyber risk.
Steve Kohler, currently executive vice president at Ridge Global, will serve as CEO of Ridge Insurance Solutions and John J. Fleming will be president. Ridge Insurance Solutions Company is headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in New York and Alpharetta, Georgia.
The five Lloyd’s syndicates are: lead underwriters Brit, AEGIS London, and Novae, along with Barbican Insurance Group and ACE.
“We believe that much of the narrative surrounding cyber risk is too narrowly focused on compliance and does not adequately address the concerns of small and medium-sized companies,” added Rick Welsh, head of cyber insurance at AEGIS London. “We are delighted to be partnering with Ridge because we feel they understand that holistic risk management and incident response should be central to cyber insurance. For many of our clients globally the primary focus is business continuity and we know that Ridge shares that philosophy.”
Guy Carpenter said the product offers three components which are designed to help organizations meet the cybersecurity challenge head-on:
- An initial on-site assessment of existing cybersecurity capabilities is conducted by the Ridge assessment team to expose any potential system vulnerabilities and provide recommendations to reduce cyber exposures. Compliance with recommendations will directly affect premiums charged for insurance.
- A comprehensive cyber privacy and network protection insurance policy provides the central component of the solution. Coverage within the includes: business interruption coverage; privacy and security liability; crisis and ‘event’ management costs; information assets and cyber extortion.
- Remediation services will deliver a rapid and robust response to any form of cyber intrusion, quickly isolating the intruder, shoring up the breach and limiting the business impact.
“What this solution delivers is across-the-board cyber protection. From the initial vulnerability assessment, to the implementation of the extensive cyber policy, and through to the rapid-response remediation capabilities, it spans all of the critical stages of an effective cybersecurity strategy,” added Ben Maidment, class underwriter for Global Cyber, Privacy and Technology at Brit.
