Specialty re/insurer Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited, has teamed with Surefire Cyber, a US-based firm, to launch Aspen Cyber Risk Services (ACRS), a complimentary suite of services that will enable its primary cyber insureds to proactively tackle cybersecurity threats, from pre-incident to response and resilience.
According to the announcement, this new offering – which is provided on policies sold globally – will be available to Aspen’s primary cyber insureds using law, technology, digital forensics, focusing on analytical issues at the nexus of risk management and cybersecurity.
Moreover, through its partnership with Aspen, ACRS will be able to help Surefire Cyber’s customers assess and prepare for cyber incidents, as well as respond more quickly and effectively if such an incident does occur.
ACRS will also be able to help gauge the effectiveness of an organisation’s controls as well as provide recommendations to improve a company’s resilience to ransomware attacks.
From what we understand, Aspen’s primary cyber insureds will be able to select one tailored service at no charge during each policy period.
Aspen noted that these services could include: technical tabletop exercise; ransomware resilience assessment; cybersecurity improvement plan; legal tabletop exercise or code red alerts.
However, Aspen confirmed that legal tabletop exercise and code red alerts will be provided through other service providers.
A unique factor that this offering between the two companies presents, is the ransomware resilience assessment, which will be able to test network defenses by simulating a real-world ransomware attack, using the current tactics, techniques and procedures of major ransomware groups.
This is followed by a workshop presenting the attacker’s perspective of what assets and data could have been compromised within the attack.
As a result, the ACRS data-driven offering will allow customers to make effective contingency plans and detect attackers before incidents spiral.
Bobby Bianconi, Aspen Insurance Global Head of Cyber, commented: “As threats in cybersecurity continue to increase, ACRS will empower customers to detect risks at an early stage and provide them with the tools needed to respond swiftly and decisively. We are delighted to partner with Surefire Cyber’s first-class team of experts to deliver this powerful offering globally to our insureds as the cyber-threat landscape continues evolving rapidly.”
Billy Gouveia, Surefire Cyber CEO, said: “Ransomware continues to plague organizations across all industries, but with proper planning they can mitigate the risk. Our team is excited to be working with Aspen to offer their primary cyber insureds a suite of pre-loss services to improve their cybersecurity posture.”
It is very clear that this collaboration between Aspen and Surefire Cyber comes at a time where ransomware attacks are a major topic of conversation across the industry.
If you recall, a report released by Allianz in October, highlighted how there has been a sharp resurgence in ransomware and extortion claims. The company stated that because of this, organisations need to bolster their cybersecurity defenses.
