In a joint partnership between Aon, Allianz, Apple and Cisco, insurance is now available for cyber security threats. Enterprise systems are able to be evaluated and then offered improvements to help prevent cyber attacks from causing devastation and costly damage to businesses.
One of the key services being offered is protection from ransomware. Data loss can be extremely expensive and also frustrating. Cisco Ransomware Defense will be offered as the recommended solution. Additionally, Cisco will also be promoting its Talos service to analyze e-mail, provide endpoint protection and cover many traditional means of detecting malicious software. In the event that a problem is found, Cisco and Aon will work with clients to appropriately respond to attacks.
Apple's main contribution to the partnership is working with Allianz to manage risk for organizations. With the use of always-on hardware encryption and support for secure networking protocols, iOS devices and Mac computers are able to provide an environment that is relatively risk-averse for corporate deployment.
In order to qualify for insurance, a group must first pass a "Cyber Resilience Evaluation." Allianz will verify that qualifying Apple hardware is being used or that Cisco Ransomware Defense has been properly configured. Following completion of a preliminary assessment, insurance options will be presented on a per client basis.
Going forward, it will be noteworthy to see how claims are handled for clients that choose to work with Apple and Cisco. Quantifying damages for cyber attacks can be difficult to measure. Insuring data against loss is relatively straightforward but theft of information or downtime from a cyber attack leads to many complications.