Exclusive partnership will extend MGA’s cyber offerings

Managing general agent Burns & Wilcox has announced an exclusive partnership with a cybersecurity company to pair its specialty insurance products with data breach monitoring and notification services.

The partnership with London, UK-based BreachAware, which specializes in data breach research and analysis, was announced Tuesday. It will allow brokers and agents to offer their clients another solution to improve security, whether or not they already have a cyber insurance product, said David Derigiotis, corporate vice president and national professional liability practice leader with Burns & Wilcox.

BreachAware’s risk management program will serve as an extension to the cyber products and services offered by Burns & Wilcox and will allow commercial clients to better understand their exposure to compromised credentials. The addition of this service may also lead to more favourable cyber insurance premiums for buyers, Burns & Wilcox reported.

BreachAware is a proprietary risk mitigation tool that scans the web 24/7 and identifies compromised assets, such as company email addresses, passwords and personally identifiable information linked to employees of an organization. The tool helps reduce the likelihood of account compromise and warns users of phishing attacks through instant, action-oriented real-time alerts when new data is discovered. For example, it will include the exposure level, breach date and type of compromised data (such as email address, password, date of birth, instant messenger identity, etc.)

Each year, millions of business records are compromised that contain valuable information used to carry out cyberattacks against employees and organizations alike. This exposed data creates an elevated risk of account takeover and unauthorized access, especially where password reuse is prevalent.

“Many organizations don’t understand just how large their digital footprints have become,” Derigiotis said. “This service will help shrink down that exposure and strengthen their security posture.”