Allianz inks partnership with cyber risk specialist
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty has partnered with cyber risk expert Cyence to better understand cyber risks affecting its clients. The two firms will be working together in developing predictive modelling tools assessing business interruption caused by cyber breaches. Allianz also plans on leveraging the partnership to establish a digital distribution platform potentially providing automated cyber coverage for medium-sized businesses. 
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE (AGCS), Allianz Group’s specialist carrier for corporate insurance business, has teamed up with San Mateo, Calif.-based cyber risk analytics and modeling firm Cyence to boost its global cyber risk analysis capabilities.

Cyence’s cyber analytics platform will help AGCS boost its global cyber risk analysis capabilities, said AGCS in a statement. The partnership also will help AGCS better analyze cyber exposures for large business customers by creating a detailed understanding of their individual cyber risk profiles, quickly allowing the insurer to tailor coverage to fit specific customer profiles.

In a second initiative, AGCS plans to integrate Cyence’s cyber risk analytics into new digital distribution platforms that enable low-touch, automated underwriting of cyber policies for medium-size companies.

Both companies are also joining forces to develop a new predictive modeling tool for cyber-driven business interruption risks, AGCS added.

“We are moving our underwriting approach from hindsight to foresight,” explained AGCS Board Member Hartmut Mai as the rationale behind the cooperation with Cyence.

“The future of underwriting and practical risk management will be based on the intelligent use of technology and data,” said Mai.

Going forward, AGCS must complement its technical knowhow and experience “with extensive data-driven insight and predictive modeling if we want to keep ahead of new risks such as cyber, supply chain, or emerging liability exposures, Mai added.

Cyence reaches beyond the technical analysis of the IT security of a company into analyzing the human behavioral indicators and an organization’s processes to calibrate cyber risk, explained AGCS, noting that the Cyence platform spans from risk selection and assessment of individual companies to risk accumulation and catastrophic cyber risk scenarios and their potential impact.

AGCS previously announced a similar partnership with liability modeling specialist Praedicat, which focuses on analyzing big data to identify risk trends in liability.

Source: Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS)

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Cyber