Breakthrough Cyber-Risk Solution Launched in Asia-Pacific

Tuesday 9 April 2019

Specialist insurance provider Delta Insurance has partnered with global security leader DynaRisk to deliver a cyber-protection and insurance product for businesses and their employees and customers across the Asia-Pacific region.

Delta Insurance Group Managing Director Ian Pollard says the cyber-risk product, which will be managed and marketed from Delta Insurance’s New Zealand and Singapore offices, is a first for the Asia-Pacific region, where industry commentators have long lamented the lack of innovation in cyber-risk solutions targeted at smaller enterprises.

Delta Insurance New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Craig Kirk says cyber-attacks increased 205% last year in New Zealand and, tellingly, individuals bore the brunt of 65% of the financial losses reported in 2018 to CERT NZ, the New Zealand Government’s cyber-attack monitoring department. One-in-five of the 3445 cyber-breaches incurred a financial loss; total losses for 2018 came to $14 million – “and that was only those matters reported; inevitably this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “Netsafe has also reported that the losses were around $33 million from 13,000 instances of scams or fraud.” Currently 82% of losses from cyber-attacks are not reimbursed, and victims take on average nine hours to recover, says Kirk. “Businesses can lose whole days of trading.”

While cyber-insurance isn’t new, the combination of insurance and risk mitigation in this part of the world is, says Pollard. “We’ve been involved in cyber-insurance for some time, but we’ve been concerned there hasn’t been much in the way of proactive and user-friendly, upfront protection against cyber-crime available.

“We’re passionate about this area and have been looking for some time for a product like DynaRisk, which mitigates risk by providing an initial assessment of the current state of exposure and then provides practical, guided steps that customers can take to improve their risk position. While we can provide DynaRisk independently of an insurance solution, it also sits perfectly with a robust insurance package for those hopefully rare occasions when breaches do occur. We’re thrilled to have entered into this exclusive partnership with DynaRisk in the Asia-Pacific and Australasian region.”

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Kirk says the Delta/DynaRisk package is intended initially for businesses but is perfectly applicable to their customers, their employees or their family members. “We’ll be offering it to both new and existing commercial cyber-insurance customers, individuals and their families.”

He also believes that affinity partners such as banks and telecommunications companies will be strongly attracted by the opportunity the product presents to minimise cyber-exposure for their customers, while insurance brokers will welcome a solution for the increasing number of clients suffering cyber-scams and fraud. “In addition to SMEs, we’re keen to work with banks, life insurers, telecommunications and technology companies and corporates in general to build this product into what they offer their customers and employees – and the response so far has been enthusiastic. But this is a package that can benefit anyone who is exposed to the internet’s cyber-dangers and we’ll be exploring how it may be possible to take this offering to an even wider audience.”

Pollard says customers taking up the offering receive a cyber-security scorecard which tells you how well-protected (or not) you are, a step-by-step continuous action plan to tighten security and monitoring of multiple devices, and a Personal Dashboard which includes alerts if security and anti-virus software are not installed or are vulnerable, simulated phishing, and router scans. “DynaRisk helps the customer avoid losing sensitive information, photos and data, suffering fraudulent transactions or personal information theft, and being attacked by ransomware.”

Kirk says that, for businesses, the scorecard also enables them to identify if employees’ data is on the dark web, which can increase company exposure to cyber-attack. “DynaRisk has access to 1.4 billion records where individuals are comprised through email and password theft on the dark web that they can review, and it reduces this risk of such theft by specifically enabling employees, the weakest link in almost all cyber-attacks, to reduce their cyber-risk exposure.”

DynaRisk founder and CEO Andrew Martin says customers and small businesses are increasingly asking their cyber insurers to mitigate their risks because they want more than just an insurance policy to help keep them safe. “We are thrilled to join with Delta and bundle our Cyber Security Score into consumer and small business policies. Together, we can now offer insureds a comprehensive prevention, monitoring and response solution backed by insurance.”

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