In June 2019, research undertaken by the specialist insurer¹ revealed that more than a third (38%) of brokers had never sold a cyber policy and more than half (54%) wanted more support from insurers to help them overcome the barriers to selling the cover.
According to the research, the main barriers that brokers face are clients not seeing a need for cyber insurance (90%) and a lack of understanding as to what cyber insurance actually covers them for (89%).
Initially developed for the education sector, Ecclesiastical’s new
cyber scenario planner addresses these issues. It comes in three parts. The first helps the organisation identify its cyber threats, facilitating a conversation between the broker and client about who, what and how a threat could arise.
The second part enables the broker to discuss the risk associated with those threats. It demonstrates how the organisation can address the risk – can the risk be avoided completely, can it be reduced, can the liability be transferred (for example through insurance) or is the organisation comfortable retaining the risk?
Finally, the cyber scenario planner helps to map out the risks identified and assess them against a number of factors including potential costs, frequency and severity. The map gives clients a complete view of the cyber threats they currently have, what they have in place to manage them and what they can do in addition to strengthen their risk management.
Faith Kitchen, education niche director for Ecclesiastical explained: “As a specialist insurer with in-depth knowledge of our customer base, it is important that we work with brokers to ensure that we provide solutions that meet the needs of the sector.
“The explosion in technology and move to greater connectivity has seen a significant rise in those looking to exploit the technology for financial gain and schools are not immune to this activity.”
In 2018, three UK schools had their CCTV systems hacked and footage of pupils was streamed live on a US website and there have been numerous reports of spoof emails being sent to parents with ‘new’ bank account details for the transfer of school fees.
“We know that cyber crime is a big concern,” Faith added. “Our own research shows that 68% of the education sector and more than three-quarters (77%) of independent schools see cyber as a high risk. So it is important that we equip our broker partners with the tools to help their clients identify and manage them.
“We hope that the cyber scenario planner will open up conversations not only with school bursars, but also with the wider school management team, enabling brokers to demonstrate the need for cyber insurance and the scenarios for which it can provide cover.”
Although it has been designed for the education sector, the cyber scenario planner could be easily adapted for other sectors, run as a workshop with clients or used in face-to-face conversations with decision makers.
1. Research undertaken by independent research agency FWD on behalf of Ecclesiastical. 250 UK business placing brokers were interviewed by telephone between 21 January 2019 and 15 February 2019.
