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New HSB cyber product targets mid-size companies with revenues of $10 million to $250 million


February 4, 2016   by Canadian Underwriter


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The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (HSB) has announced the availability of a stand-alone insurance product that seeks to fill the coverage gap for mid-size companies by offering them direct coverage for multiple types of data and cyber exposures.

Stand-alone cyber product for mid-size businesses

Building on a decade of the company’s experience covering identity theft, data breaches and cyber attacks, the HSB Total Cyber product finds the middle ground between coverage designed for big or small organizations, HSB, part of Munich Re, announced Wednesday.

The new product will allow agents and brokers to offer commercial customers a more comprehensive solution to today’s growing cyber risks, the company statement notes.

The coverage is designed for businesses with revenues of $10 million to $150 million, although firms with revenues of up to $250 million can be underwritten. The bundle of cyber and information security coverages offers broader protection relating to data breach response and liability, identity theft, computer attack, cyber extortion, and network security and electronic media liability, HSB adds in the statement.

The coverage will be available through independent agents and brokers, pending approvals in some states, the statement adds.

Increasingly, larger companies are “imposing contractual obligations on contractors and suppliers, which require mid-size companies to carry cyber insurance and improve cyber defences to protect the larger firm from hackers,” HSB points out.

“The cyber market is the Wild West of insurance with so many different types and levels of coverage,” comments HSB vice president Timothy Zeilman.

Noting that medium-sized companies are squeezed between expensive cyber policies designed for big organizations and low-cost insurance packaged for small businesses, the new product “helps fill that gap with a single policy that includes a variety of essential coverages that a mid-size company needs and can afford,” Zeilman continues.

HSB further points out that as small and middle-market companies continue to report improved earnings and performance, their visibility has increased among criminal hackers. Even so, techniques being used by hackers are still less targeted than those used against big businesses, it adds.


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