Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR) announced that it will partner with security risk and cyber data providers BitSight Technologies and Risk Based Security (RBS) to develop a cyber risk model. AIR said that its model will assist the insurance industry in managing the evolving threat of cyber attacks with the help of up-to-date and complete incident data, real-time security ratings of companies, exposure data, and data relating to the “cyber supply chain.”
BitSight will provide data gathered from across the Internet, including BitSight’s security ratings by industry, company size, and company headquarters location.
“Cybersecurity is viewed as a top priority for many companies, and the importance and value of security ratings have already been realized across numerous industries,” said Ira Scharf, general manager of worldwide cyber insurance at BitSight. “As more and more companies purchase cyber insurance, insurers are becoming increasingly concerned with aggregation risk. We’re collaborating with AIR to help them more accurately account for cyber risk in the entire supply chain, such as security vulnerabilities on hosting companies, cloud providers, and other third-party suppliers.”
Risk Based Security has provided AIR with historical incident data on more than 16,000 breaches, the firms said. The RBS data contains industry-specific details on threat vectors and vulnerabilities and data breach information on businesses, industries, and geographies.
“The pace of data breach activity shows no sign of slowing, despite the unprecedented focus on protecting systems and data from attack and compromise. In fact, if the current rate of disclosure continues, 2015 will be the worst year on record for the number of breach events reported,” said Inga Goddijn, executive vice president, Risk Based Security. “Comprehensive modeling of cyber risk has never been more important. We’re pleased to collaborate with an innovative company like AIR to help them utilize this valuable data for building a more complete and advanced cyber risk model.”
“Leveraging these key data assets from BitSight and Risk Based Security is a major step forward in developing a robust cyber model,” said Scott Stransky, manager and principal scientist at AIR Worldwide. “We’re developing a comprehensive cyber industry exposure database that can enable us to better estimate potential financial losses to entire sectors and portfolios due to common vulnerabilities. The AIR model will be critical to a true understanding of the financial implications of cyber attacks, including the aggregation risk associated with a mega-scale attack.”
Erin is the managing editor of Advisen’s Front Page News. She has been covering property-casualty insurance since 2000. Previously, Erin served as editor-in-chief of The Standard, New England’s Insurance Weekly. Erin is based in Boston, Mass. Contact Erin at [email protected].
