BitSight and Kovrr announce new partnership

Security ratings specialist BitSight and cyber risk modelling specialist Kovrr have partnered to deliver a comprehensive data-driven cyber risk financial quantification solution for the insurance market.

The BitSight-Kovrr Financial Quantification for Insurance Cyber Risk gives cyber insurers the tools required to make decisions more accurately and confidently about key areas of the cyber insurance business including underwriting, modelling, and portfolio management.

To begin the partnership, BitSight and Kovrr released a joint financial analysis of the impact of the unprecedented 2020 SolarWinds attack to the insurance industry, estimating the insured losses to be $90 million. This analysis was made possible by BitSight and Kovrr’s ability to identify unique breach elements as cost components, including the size, location, and industry of the organisations impacted by SolarWinds.

BitSight and Kovrr are together delivering a comprehensive end-to-end solution that allows cyber insurers globally to underwrite companies of any size, from any geography and industry; model individual risk and portfolio exposure; and engage insureds with detailed visibility into their security posture.

The BitSight-Kovrr Financial Quantification of Cyber Risk combines BitSight’s data and analytics on company-specific cybersecurity performance and fourth-party aggregate risk, with Kovrr’s advanced cyber risk multi-model technology to deliver the cyber insurance market’s most comprehensive, data-driven end-to-end solution for underwriting and portfolio management.

Cyber insurance claims are on the rise, driven by an increase in cyber attacks from ransomware, phishing, third-party breaches and more. According to Aon, US cyber insurers saw a 10 percent loss ratio increase due to ransomware in 2019. Cyber insurers are forced to pay out more in claims than they had anticipated, leading to worsening loss ratios and ultimately, diminishing profitability.

The BitSight-Kovrr Financial Quantification of Cyber Risk solves the lack of historic and real-time security performance data on individual organisations, which has previously challenged cyber insurers to make informed underwriting decisions and negatively impacted risk modelling approaches.

“The cyber insurance market requires data that is specific, relevant, accurate, current, and transparent,” said Dave Fachetti, chief strategy officer at BitSight.

“BitSight offers the most comprehensive externally observable data on organisation security performance in the industry. The combination of BitSight’s data and analytics and Kovrr’s comprehensive, automated, and scalable modelling technology will be crucial to address the industry need for a more accurate and consistent approach to making key underwriting and portfolio management decisions related to cyber risk.”

Yakir Golan, CEO of Kovrr, added: “Understanding and modelling the impact of major cyber incidents on an insurer’s portfolio is key for enabling further growth of the cyber insurance industry.

“The BitSight-Kovrr solution allows cyber insurers to fully operationalise initiatives from single risk underwriting to portfolio risk accumulation management. We’re excited to join forces with BitSight in support of the global insurance community.”