Ed launches global cyber academy

Ed, the global reinsurance, wholesale and specialty broker, announced on Friday the launch of what it is calling the insurance industry’s first global cyber academy.

The Ed Cyber Academy, which will be led by Peter Hacker, the company’s group chief innovation officer, will provide clients, partners and underwriters with an in-depth insight into cybercrime and cybersecurity risks, Ed said in a press release.

The three level enterprise risk management programme will focus on awareness; understanding the unprecedented risk which cybercrime presents to businesses and clients; the perception of the risk versus reality; risk quantification or modelling; risk treatment including risk transfer; and claims. The final stage of the academy will use scenarios to stress test how clients and carriers respond to a cyberattack and the insurance solutions which are available today, Ed noted in the release.

“Cybercrime and cybersecurity risks now threaten every industry and have become a key focus for our clients,” Hacker said in the release. “Digitalization, cybersecurity and related perils such as intellectual property, reputational or brand risk are not new, however the risks to clients are increasing and the insurance industry must do more to better understand, both qualitatively and quantitatively, this unprecedented threat.”

Hacker added that it is essential as an industry, particularly at the board and risk management level, that there is awareness of the risk and opportunities presented by cyber. “An in-depth understanding of the cyber risk landscape should not be the preserve of a specialist few,” he said. “The Ed Cyber Academy will work to address this knowledge deficit. The academy will enable clients, partners and suppliers to gain a more in-depth understanding of how to mitigate and potentially transfer cybersecurity risks.”

Added Ed CEO Steve Hearn: “Cyber is one of the fastest growing business classes and a clear threat to the global economy.”

Hacker has two decades of global leadership experience and is a multi‐lingual, international expert in the field of cybersecurity, cybercrime and enterprise risk management, the release said. He is also the co-founder and partner at Distinction.Global, a specialized advisory unit of the Cyber Crime Research Institute, an independent global think tank dealing with aspects of cybercrime and cybersecurity.

In September, global broking Cooper Gay rebranded as Ed, an independent global wholesale insurance and reinsurance broker with offices in “the world’s key regional and global insurance centres,” including Dubai; Hong Kong; London, U.K.; Miami; Paris; Rayleigh, U.K.; Shanghai and Singapore. The release reported that Ed is the eighth-largest Lloyd’s broker.