Brokers must up game over cyber threat says ACE

According to new research by the insurer, 58% of insurance brokers are not actively engaged in discussing cyber risks with their clients.

This is despite the fact that a significant proportion of UK business (39%) said they rely on their brokers for information on emerging cyber exposures.

The interactive poll of nearly 200 brokers that attended a breakfast briefing hosted by ACE this week to tackle cyber risk also revealed that most discuss cyber risk with clients either ‘infrequently’ or ‘never’.

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“A vast number of cyber threats affect organisations every day which can result in significant reputational damage, financial loss and business disruption. Many traditional commercial property and casualty policies fall short of the cover needed for comprehensive protection against the risks associated with computer systems and data storage. It is increasingly important that brokers can confidently discuss cyber exposures with clients, helping them to understand the risks and appropriate countermeasures that they can implement to reduce their exposure and manage the fallout from any incident,” said Iain Ainslie, Technology and Cyber Underwriter at ACE.

The findings are published as cyber security breaches and computer hacking attacks become an increasing concern for UK companies.

Only last month UK bank NatWest suffered a serious computer glitch that prevented up to 12 million people paying their bills and transferring money.

In 2011, Scotland Yard’s ACPO National e-Crime Programme (NeCP) Working Group was allocated £30m of government funding after cyber security was recognised as one of the biggest threats to the UK.

At the briefing, ACE said that it had reviewed and relaunched its cyber insurance solution ‘Dataguard Advantage’ in response to the changing risk environment and called on insurers and brokers to work in close partnership to meet client needs.