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Guy Carpenter forms strategic alliance with Symantec to develop cyber aggregation model


May 18, 2016   by Canadian Underwriter


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Guy Carpenter & Company announced on Tuesday the formation of a strategic alliance with global cybersecurity company Symantec Corporation to create a cyber aggregation model.

iStock_000081558739_SmallThe model will include a comprehensive catalogue of cyber scenarios from which insurers can derive frequency and severity distributions to measure the potential financial impact of loss from both affirmative cyber coverages and “silent” all-risk policies where cyber is the peril, but no cyber exclusions exist.

Guy Carpenter’s Cyber Solutions Specialty Practice, which focuses on the development and delivery of innovative cyber reinsurance solutions, will spearhead this effort, the global risk and reinsurance specialist and wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies said in a press release. Symantec is a complementary new partner for Guy Carpenter.

The systemic nature of cyber risks means that (re)insurers can suffer losses from multiple insureds across vast geographies from a single event, exposing infrastructure, supply chain, and other interconnected risks, the release noted. In the wake of the cyberattack on the Ukrainian power grid in late 2015, (re)insurers are attempting to model, and assess the aggregation risk of, potential attacks on critical infrastructure, including electric grids, telecommunications networks, dams, transportation systems, chemical plants and civilian nuclear facilities. However, limited historical data and the constantly evolving threat make it a challenging peril to model, Guy Carpenter said.

The collaboration between Guy Carpenter and Symantec will “leverage the advanced analytics, unparalleled cybersecurity knowledge and combined scale and innovation of both companies to accelerate the services needed to create the industry’s most advanced cyber aggregation model,” the release said.

“By combining Guy Carpenter’s risk management and catastrophe modelling expertise with Symantec’s technical knowledge and proprietary data, we are pioneering a cyber aggregation model to help reinsurers gain a better understanding of their correlated cyber risks and to manage and protect their capital in extreme cyber scenarios,” said Tim Gardner, CEO of U.S. Operations at Guy Carpenter.

Roxane Divol, senior vice president and general manager of website security at Symantec and executive sponsor of Symantec’s new Cyber Insurance Group, added that the company’s cybersecurity data and analytics, combined with Guy Carpenter’s “deep knowledge of the emerging cyber reinsurance market will give our insurance customers a better understanding of the most damaging cyberattacks.”


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