When the Data Dam is Breached

Proactive cyber security processes, capabilities and tools are essential to keeping companies in a “left of boom” stance against cyber threats. But once a “right of boom” data breach occurs, companies need expert advice on what to do next.

That’s where Beazley steps in. The international insurer, says Kingsley Flynn, head of Broker Relations, “has managed well over 600 breaches in the past few years.”

Once a firm has suffered a data breach, he says, they need to know what to do as well as what not to do. What a company should not do, he says, is go public immediately. Instead, they need to get their arms around the problem and figure out exactly what the damage is. That’s where a call to Beazley becomes very important.

Katherine Keefe, who joined Beazley in 2012 and is the “Beazley Breach Response” (BBR) Services Focus Group Leader, is an attorney with extensive experience in privacy and regulatory issues. Beazley offers “complete breach response” since 2009. Beazley assists the insured regardless of the cause.

“Immediately after Beazley is notified about a data incident, BBR Services jumps right in to work with the insured to offer help with investigation of the incident and to connect the company to legal, forensics and other resources available under the BBR policy,” says Keefe. “Some insureds need a little help; some need quite a bit of help. Beazley works collaboratively with its insureds, offering the right amount of guidance, support and resources to investigate and respond effectively to data breaches.”

The coverage includes data breach notification and credit monitoring for affected individuals, forensic and legal assistance, costs of notification, loss prevention services and identity theft-related fraud resolution services. Keefe says the product also includes “legal experts, call centers, notifications letters,” as well as atypical data breach response requirements, including support for regulatory privacy compliance issues such as HIPAA. To her knowledge, she says, “we are the only cyber carrier who provides breach response services in such a comprehensive, expert and in-sourced manner.”

The increasing sophisticated cyber threat creates a new risk management profile for protecting sensitive information and systems. That now makes proactive vigilance the norm. But it helps to have after-the-fact aid as well, and that’s’ where programs, such as Beazley’s, offer brokers a leg up on the competition.