Pen Underwriting partners with Paladin Cyber on cyber risk solutions for brokers and clients

A new cyber risk management suite has been launched by Pen Underwriting in a new UK strategic partnership with Paladin Cyber. The first phase of the partnership sees Pen offering all of its brokers a new non-intrusive vulnerability scanning solution from Paladin Cyber to help counter cyber threats. Hamir Patel, head of cyber at Pen Underwriting, said: “Our role at Pen is to help our brokers win and retain business, just as much as it is to devise effective solutions for their customers to mitigate and manage their risks. That’s why we want to incorporate Paladin Cyber’s expertise and tools in a way that empowers our brokers, rather than simply factoring the results of vulnerability scans into our underwriting decisions.” Pen explained that the solution generates a risk report identifying potential vulnerabilities in an organisation’s defences against serious cyber threats such as ransomware, email compromises and other forms of unauthorised access into their IT systems. According to Pen, the tool scans an organisation’s internet-facing network infrastructure in real time using publicly available information derived from their web domain. It then provides clear, actionable advice on how best to improve their information security position. Pen said that rather than simply factoring findings from the vulnerability scans into its cyber risk underwriting decisions, it is furnishing brokers with the results to enable them to discuss with clients or prospects any weaknesses identified, and pass on practical ways they can mitigate negative findings to improve their risk profile and resilience. “Although take-up of cyber cover is increasing, it remains low compared to other business insurance coverages despite our world being increasingly dominated by cyber risks,” said Patel. “We hope by having access to these client-specific but easy-to-understand risk reports, brokers feel better equipped to have those all-important conversations about real-life vulnerabilities but also the practical steps an organisation can take to improve their information security and defences.” He added: “Cyberattacks are painful, prolonged and expensive to deal with, so the best thing we can do is to help clients minimise [businesses’] chance of suffering any unauthorised access to their IT networks, systems paralysis or cyber extortion, or at least minimising its impact. In turn, this will also help ensure cyber cover for businesses can remain affordable, available and sustainable as exposures continue to increase and evolve.” The second phase of the partnership with Paladin Cyber will roll out as an added-value benefit from January 2023 through brokers with Pen cyber policyholders. Paladin Shield will offer easy, enterprise-wide protection to businesses in a way that complements any other cybersecurity products companies may already use, said Pen. The cyber risk management solution utilises AI to detect suspicious emails in real time, provides secure browsing activity, blocks dangerous downloads and automatically scans systems to identify vulnerabilities, while using phishing simulations to create targeted employee training that reduces the hazard of human error. The solution also includes on-call support from Paladin’s cybersecurity specialists. Xing Xin, CEO of Paladin Cyber, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Pen and its brokers to help their clients strengthen their resilience to increasingly common types of cyberattack, such as ransomware and phishing. Such attacks are now a matter of when, not if. Misconfigured systems and phishing account for over 90% of business cyber losses. A little bit of time combined with the right solution delivers a major reduction to cyber risk.” He added: “Paladin Shield helps companies tackle these easily preventable cyber threats without needing to hire additional IT or security headcount, and our customers experience substantially fewer cyber incidents and losses as a result. We’re excited to support Pen’s policyholders and help reduce the prevalence of UK organisations falling victim to cybercrime.”

Pen Underwriting partners with Paladin Cyber on cyber risk solutions for brokers and clients

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