New CSIO standards release introduces cyber liability insurance

The Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) announced on Wednesday the release of its latest XML data standard, which incorporates new updates related to the introduction of Cyber Liability Insurance.

The need for cyber liability insurance is on the rise, with major retailers and government agencies – including Home Depot and the Canada Revenue Agency – recently experiencing significant data breaches, the CSIO said in a press release. According to digital security company Gemalto, at least 276,000 data breaches occurred in Canadian companies in 2014.

“The introduction of Cyber Liability Insurance helps better manage these risks that can be present when doing business over the Internet,” CSIO – Canada’s industry association of property and casualty insurers, software providers and more than 36,000 brokers – noted in the release.

The Cyber Liability Message and Coverage Codes were developed by ACORD, the U.S.-based insurance standards organization, in an effort to standardize the transfer of data for these new policies. With these changes incorporated into the latest release of the CSIO XML Standard, CSIO members can now help protect customers against risks to their data and information systems, CSIO said.

The July 2015 XML standards release (version 1.29), which includes the Cyber Liability Message, is available for download now. Insurer and software provider members can login and download the new standards release on www.csio.com.