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Strengthening Enterprise Security with Cyber Assessments

How Miller Insurance Services leverages holistic assessments to determine cyber risk.

Insurers facing greater risk of cyber attacks seek technologies to protect their assets from potential threats. In an effort to safeguard operations and data, Miller Insurance Services LLP leverages cyber assessment technology from TSC Advantage, which specializes in enterprise risk consultancy and uses an intelligence-based process to align corporate resources against threats.

Increasing risk around privacy, liability, data loss, network cost, infrastructure and loss of business income have all affected standards for cyberinsurance, explains Tom Quy, producer, broker and insurance specialist at Millers. The industry has provided very generic products, he says, and there is a greater demand for solutions that meet higher standards.

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Underwriters now require more in-depth information to secure the necessary breadth of coverage. “For larger clients, the risk in cyber is so diverse and dynamic that there is a slow move towards a higher level of underwriting information they need to get,” Quy explains. “Increasingly we’re finding that a holistic approach to risk assessment is much more accurate.”

TSC provides a comprehensive measure of security controls through its Enterprise Security Assessment (ESA), which evaluates risk across insider threats, mobility, physical security, data security, and internal and external business operations. It asks a wealth of questions to employees throughout an organization to determine its security strength. The assessment results in a score that could potentially lower cyberinsurance premium.

“What’s different about this process is the type of due diligence and validation that we do,” explains Natalie Lehr, co-founder and VP of analytics at TSC. Those that undergo the assessment receive a document providing the results and cost-benefit analysis of fixing certain areas.

Miller began its collaboration with TSC in early August 2013 to increase the information available to underwriters and improve the pre-binding risk assessment that supports cyberinsurance policies. Within the past few months, it has launched its web platform and introduced the strategy to its underwriters. The cyber assessment process is still being conducted.

Kelly Sheridan is the Staff Editor at Dark Reading, where she focuses on cybersecurity news and analysis. She is a business technology journalist who previously reported for InformationWeek, where she covered Microsoft, and Insurance & Technology, where she covered financial ... View Full Bio

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