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SiriusPoint CEO Scott Egan on 9M results and setting the foundations for growth

Read more: SiriusPoint hit with losses, announces office closures

Spotlighting some key figures, he highlighted the impact of Hurricane Ian, for which SiriusPoint has reserved on the basis of a $60 billion market event – a figure on the more prudent end of market estimates. Here the impact of the ongoing strategic restructuring that SiriusPoint has done around its underwriting and exposure management becomes clear, he said, as seen from the performance of SiriusPoint relative to its peers.

“Hurricane Ian, for us, was about 3.5% impact on book value,” he said, “while I think the peer average is along the lines of about 6-6.5%. So relative to the market average, we’ve performed incredibly strongly. And in addition to that, we’ve taken a very strong approach to credit management with some of the insurers and reinsurers – particularly for Florida-based ones – so, we don’t have any credit exposure in that regard as well.

“While the hurricane has had a huge impact on our numbers, I think it’s been a really good evidence point of the hard work that we’ve undertaken.”

Amid the reporting of its year-to-date results, SiriusPoint announced several of the changes that will result from the restructuring of its underwriting platform – including the closure of three offices in Hamburg, Miami, and Singapore, and the reduction of its footprint in Liege and Toronto. Touching on this, Egan emphasised that these decisions were not taken lightly, and noted that the “number one priority” for him and his executive management team is to ensure that those affected by the decision are treated fairly and with respect.

Offering context to the decision, he noted that while the overall premium impacted is only about 10% of its global portfolio, the move will see SiriusPoint reducing its international property portfolio by about 75%. As a consequence of that, he said, the group will be doing international property reinsurance on a smaller scale – consolidating those operations down from five offices globally into its Stockholm office.

“Off the back of that decision-making, we’re also making what I think is a very sensible operational change that will see our international property reinsurance done from Stockholm, and will see our US business done from Bermuda,” he said. “So I think it will be a much easier hub-and-spoke model in terms of our operations.

“But to be clear, globally, we will continue to have appetite for property reinsurance… and we’ll continue to have appetite for cat XL through our Bermuda office. And we will still have an appetite through our international platform as well, much more focused on cat XL, but albeit on a much more limited scale.”

The “why” behind the decision is simply that the portfolio has not performed at the level SiriusPoint has wanted and needed it to for a period of time. This isn’t a decision that has been taken lightly, Egan said, and it’s something the group has decided only after significant deliberation over a period of time. Simply put, the time has come to take portfolio action instead of individual risk underwriting action.

Read more: SiriusPoint announces new CEO Scott Egan

Egan also highlighted that among the key figures announced by SiriusPoint for the year-to-date is the news that on an ex-cat basis, its combined ratio has improved 4% year-on-year – in evidence of the momentum that’s beginning to set in at SiriusPoint. It’s very much a work in progress, he said, but looking into 2023, even from the early-doors position that he’s viewing it from – he feels excited about that growing momentum and the step-changes in performance to be delivered going forward.

While it’s too soon to talk to specifics, he said, SiriusPoint will be building its strategy around several key priorities.

“Number one, we’re an underwriting business, and therefore, we need to focus on that and we need to improve our performance in that regard – across both our primary insurance businesses and reinsurance businesses,” he said. “The second thing is that we enjoy some very successful distribution ownership.

“And obviously, we’re looking to leverage our distribution footprint, especially when it complements our underwriting risk appetite. I think that’s really where we can be incredibly strong and so we’re looking to leverage that. I think the third thing is that we’re looking to leverage our specialisms across all areas of our business i.e. distribution, insurance, and reinsurance. We really see those specialisms cutting right across all the areas in a very complete and joined up way.”

The fourth area of focus for SiriusPoint is its drive to ensure it is organised in a manner which enables it to deliver agile responsiveness to its customers. For a company of this shape and size, that should be a competitive advantage, he said, and he wants to make sure the firm is structured optimally to deliver that.

These four elements give a strong flavour of the group’s strategic alignment and the direction of travel that it’s looking to pursue, and Egan highlighted how he and his team are actively working to build out these strategies in order to roll them out to market as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Underpinning it all, he said, is the power of creating, maintaining and nurturing strong market relationships – and he has been delighted by the opportunity to reacquaint himself with peers across the market he hasn’t worked with for a while as well as the chance to meet new people. And what has been especially fantastic, is the feedback he has received from the wider marketplace regarding the quality of his new colleagues and how well they respected they are across the industry.

“They’ve earned that respect through their capability,” he said. “And my job as the CEO is to make sure that I can try and bring together that capability, loyalty, enthusiasm, and drive it towards better performance… Because we have to be honest and say that the overall level of performance over the last few years – for a company with this potential – has not been good enough. And I absolutely believe it can and it should be better. I’m determined to play my part in making us get there and it’s 100% the reason why I’m so excited to be here.”

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Many companies underprepared for cyber issues – report

Many companies underprepared for cyber issues – report

An unnervingly large percentage of companies are underprepared when it comes to data protection, according to a new cybersecurity study from international law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

Conducted in partnership with Mergermarket, the survey polled corporate board members, C-level executives and in-house counsels. Among its key findings were:

  • While the vast majority of executives in the financial services and telecommunications, media and technology sectors are confident in their existing cybersecurity capabilities, only 34% of respondents in the energy, mining and utilities sector felt the same
  • Only 2% of respondents said C-level executives had ultimate responsibility for cybersecurity concerns at their organisations, and one out of six did not have a dedicated in-house cybersecurity response team
  • Only 51% of survey respondents had dedicated cyber insurance, and only 47% had a corporate policy in place for responding to ransomware attacks
  • Despite the speed and complexity of cybersecurity and data privacy regulation, one in three respondents said they did not have someone on staff actively tracking related legal developments

“More and more companies are handling sensitive data, and some industry experts project global annual losses from cyber threats to reach US$10.5 trillion by 2025,” said Deborah Thoren-Peden, Pillsbury partner and co-leader of cybersecurity, data protection and privacy for the firm. “While many companies feel pretty confident in their current cybersecurity infrastructure, the stakes are simply too high not to scrutinise their cybersecurity programs carefully, especially given the inconsistencies we’ve found through our survey.”

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Gallagher snaps up Doyle Mahon Insurances

Gallagher Ireland CEO Ronan Foley (pictured left) welcomed Doyle Mahon Insurances’ acquisition, commending the well-established name in professional insurance broking it has built over the last 13 years.

He said: “As the market continues to consolidate at pace, our ability to help smaller brokers grow and expand demonstrates why Gallagher is the partner of choice for brokers in Ireland. We remain on the lookout for further acquisitions which are the right fit for Gallagher while also continuing to grow our business organically. Over the next few years, we will establish Gallagher as the go-to broker in Ireland.”

Michael Rea, CEO of Gallagher’s retail division, UK & Ireland, also commented on the deal and said: “It is fantastic to welcome the Doyle Mahon team to Gallagher. The business is a great fit with our existing operations in the country, and its location in Wexford will scale up our network further. The bringing together of the teams we now have in Ireland, coupled with the global scale and reach of Gallagher, gives us a great platform for further expansion.”

Meanwhile, Doyle Mahon Insurances director Colm Mahon (pictured right) offered assurances that it will be business as usual for the broker’s customers.

“We are very pleased to become part of Gallagher’s ambitious growth plans. The Gallagher team shares our values, and its focus on great client service fits well with what we do best – looking after our customers,” Mahon said. “[Customers] will continue to be supported by our excellent team in Wexford; however, by becoming part of a global business, we can further enhance our service and product offering.”

Read more: Gallagher expands into Ireland with major deal

Doyle Mahon Insurances joins Gallagher following the global brokerage’s acquisition of Innovu. Innovu has officially integrated with the broking giant and will rebrand to Gallagher on November 07 – marking the firm’s first direct presence in Ireland.

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Lloyd’s CEO John Neal on embedding culture at the heart of insurance

Register to watch the Dive In 2022 on-demand events

“In 2019 we had a very worrying investigation by Bloomberg into some of the behaviours in the Lloyd’s market,” he said. “I think when that came out, it really shone a light on how much culture work we needed to do. We introduced a Culture Survey – to find out first-hand, experiences of and attitudes to various different aspects of culture – alongside a series of targets to promote diversity in our market.”

Then in 2020, in the wake of activism against racial inequality following the murder of George Floyd, Lloyd’s apologised for its role in Trans-Atlantic slavery and committed to several actions to improve ethnic diversity, development and representation.

Neal said he is proud of how Lloyd’s has handled this sensitive work, forming independent academic partnerships with Black Beyond Data from Johns Hopkins University, re-curating historical displays in the Lloyd’s building and providing in-depth information on its website. He highlighted that all of these initiatives will go towards helping Lloyd’s in delivering against its ethnicity ambitions.

“In 2021, the global pandemic hit all businesses and we’ve been working through the balance of flexibility, agile and remote working that enables our market to function effectively, given it is a market built on relationships,” he said. “We recruited a head of culture in 2022, and have launched our Culture Strategy against which we are making good progress.

“Lloyd’s has achieved Gold level Clear Assured status for our inclusive practices and has risen from 75th to 45th on the Social Mobility Foundation’s, Social Mobility Employer’s Index, but there is much more to do.”

Amid these milestones, Neal has seen how the outlook towards DE&I in the Lloyd’s market is changing. The Culture Survey results reveal that the market is a more inclusive place than it has been before, he said, and this is in part due to attitudes shifting. It’s important to say that one of the true differentiators of the insurance marketplace has been its ability to attract talent, he said – therefore, it’s hugely important, through both design and intent, that the market is inclusive if it wants to represent the very best in the insurance industry.

“We are very aware that there is a need for more education and more leadership capability around diversity and inclusion to ensure we meet our D&I and culture goals,” he said. “Leadership accountability for change is an important part of shifting attitudes.

“Does it feel different on the ground, or in the room? I’m not sure it does yet – but that’s hopefully the step that follows a mindset shift. Every year for the last eight years, the insurance industry globally has hosted Dive In which is all about DE&I. This year there were over 25,000 attendees to events from 98 countries. This is absolutely showing that attitudes are shifting but we need to work out how to turn this into action.”

There are several key areas where more work needs to be done around DE&I – as revealed by Lloyd’s ‘Market Policies and Practices and Culture Survey’ results. These results show slow but steady progress year on year, he said, but reveal that more leadership accountability is needed to move the dial on DE&I.

The market is now at 30% women in leadership, he said, so achieving parity in that respect needs to remain one of Lloyd’s priorities. The organisation has also set a one-in-three hiring ambition for ethnic minority talent and the market is achieving approximately a 15% hiring rate, so again, there is more to do. 

Neal noted that Lloyd’s set out a number of ethnicity commitments in 2020 and that he is proud to say the team has delivered on many of them. 

    • Charitable funding, 
    • Sponsoring Race Equality initiatives
    • The one-in-three hiring ambition, mandating the collection of ethnicity data, publishing ethnicity pay gap information
    • Accelerate programme for ethnic minority talent 

“Areas like disability and accessibility need more focus and we need more data on social mobility,” he said. “We are active in this space through many of our partnerships such as our partnership with SEO London, but we’re still not where we want to be.”

Read more: Industry leader on the places an insurance career can take you

A common challenge around DE&I is how to convert thoughts and ideas into actions, and Neal highlighted that talk without action isn’t enough, especially for the next generation of talent.

There is a pressing need to look closely at transparency, he said, and publishing data and being deliberate in the drive to improve diversity, inclusion and culture is now an understandable, expectation. Similarly to the expectations of the next generation of talent around sustainability and climate, these aren’t ‘nice to do’s’ anymore – and, “they never should have been if we’re honest with ourselves.”

“I think we’ve been pretty robust at Lloyd’s in putting concrete steps in place – and not just nice-sounding initiatives,” he said. “We’ve factored culture and inclusion into our performance process, making culture a critical performance factor in how we assess the market’s annual plans. We take the culture of the market very seriously and take action where standards are not upheld. It’s important that we don’t just say we care about it, we have to act where there are those who do not live up to the standards expected.”

Examining how leaders can become more accountable and empower their own people, Neal highlighted that the good news is that the market now has a clear view as to what a good organisation looks and feels like. And for many people, he said, who you work for and who you work with is as important as how much you get paid. No one in 2022 can underestimate the importance of setting the right cultural framework for a business or an organisation to succeed.

“I actually think we need to treat diversity like insurance,” he said. “Gather the data to identify risk areas, put in place activities to mitigate the risks to your talent pool, set targets for diversity like you would for combined ratio outcomes and hold your leaders to account for performance. If we do that we will shift the dial. 

“I also think we can give them direct access to leaders to make sure their voices are heard and they feel they can drive action forward – as we’ve sought to do with our Employee Change Forums, which the chairman and I meet with regularly.”

His time in the insurance market has enabled Neal to see first-hand the ins and outs of what it takes to lay the secure foundations on which a healthy culture might flourish. He emphasised that setting the tone for culture and inclusion needs the same level of commitment as the ambition to deliver good performance or have the right technology. 

“At Lloyd’s, our Advance and Accelerate programmes for female and ethnic minority talent have been very successful in developing cohorts of future leaders,” he said. “Dive In is also a huge success, with 150 + events in over 40 countries this year. Increases in women in leadership and the increase in ethnic minority representation are also progressing – with 18 firms now meeting the 35% women in leadership target and 11 firms meeting the one-in-three hiring ambition. 

“Embedding culture as part of our oversight process has also been a big step forward. I think we can point to a number of successes but there remains much to do.”

Register to watch the Dive In 2022 on-demand events

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Amazon Insurance Store – who has the most to fear?

Worldwide, Amazon has over 300 million active customer accounts and it saw revenues of nearly $470 billion last year. With its products including Ring doorbells, Alexa voice assistants, and – a recent addition – iRobot vacuums, the underwriting data its connected home arsenal could potentially provide could spell opportunity for insurer partners but could also give them pause for thought depending on its ambitions.

Read more: It’s official – Amazon unveils insurance store

Amazon, according to Oxbow, is well poised to “ride” what the firm identified as key insurance trends, including personalisation and embedded insurance.

“Insurers and insurtechs have been trying to make these trends work for several years, often in isolation, and certainly largely without any kind of breakthrough success,” Oxbow said in its briefing.

“Amazon is, in our opinion, in a position to change the game.”

Should Amazon Insurance Store build on its initial home cover proposition – as of October three insurer partners were on board, LV, Ageas and Co-op – and become a “super gatekeeper” for insurance, multiple parts of the industry chain could be affected.

“I’d be concerned if I was an insurer,” Oxbow Partners partner Chris Sandilands told Insurance Business.

Big tech could look to further financial services acquisitions, a recent FCA paper set out. Market speculation has included that Amazon could later look to establish or purchase its own insurer, depending on how the insurance store performs for it.

“I don’t think they’d struggle to buy a balance sheet if they wanted one – but the key point is, do they want one?” Sandilands queried.

Underwriting costs and the regulatory burden have been mooted as barriers to an Amazon insurer entry.

Should Amazon continue partnering with insurers and start to take market share away from PCWs, this could have a “knock-on effect” on brokers.

“A lot of their volumes from price comparison sites, so it’s not obvious that they would have a role to play in the Amazon model,” Sandilands said.

It is PCWs, though, that have already felt some market concern around the Amazon entry. Go Compare, Money Supermarket, and Compare the Market all saw their share prices dip upwards of 3% on the news.

Amazon had reportedly been mulling a price comparison entry since at least 2018.

Read more: Amazon ‘in talks with insurers for UK price comparison site’

“The market certainly thought that this was a real threat, with share prices slipping considerably on the day Amazon announced their launch,” said Altus insurance director Mark Andrews.

Recent years have seen GoCo sold to Future and Admiral’s Penguin Portals comparison business, including Confused, sold to RVU. The market has also grappled with general insurance pricing practices rule changes, as the FCA has worked to stamp out dual pricing.

“The incumbent PCWs are feeling the pressure from big tech, the traditional comparison model needs to change and that this is the top of the market and a time to get best value from a sale,” Andrews said.

Amazon’s insurance store launched with a “standards” commitment, which, along with PCWs’ strong foothold in terms of brand association for consumers, led experts to question whether the tech behemoth will look to compete on experience rather than price.

“Brand association for Meercats and Opera Singers is about saving customers money and making the time spent looking for insurance as short as possible,” Andrews said.

“They’ve spent millions drumming that message over many years; I don’t see Amazon following that message, they’ll need to invent a new way to attract customers.”

Amazon’s insurance entry was ranked just a three out of 10 for impact by Altus, and Andrews described the move as a “toe in the water distribution deal”.

With three insurer partners on board, the insurance store looks more managing general agent (MGA) or distribution partner than PCW for now; its question set – at 37 questions – is also around half the size of the big PCWs.

For the short term, PCWs will “continue to win” when it comes to brand loyalty and customer apathy, Andrews predicted.

“If PCWs can convince customers they are getting a tailored, unbiased and trustworthy recommendation, they can outshine Amazon,” said Somo SVP of Experience Design, Zeina Fahra.

“The flip side of the massive marketplace is that people aren’t sure what results to trust on Amazon. Why are they being shown those choices versus others? Is it a paid placement?

“People may distrust an insurance offering from Amazon if they’re unclear on why they are being presented with that option.”

Given the Amazon venture remains in its early days – and remained available only to select users at time of writing –, just how it might evolve remains “anyone’s guess”, in the words of René Shoenauer, Guidewire director of product marketing, EMEA.

Google, a fellow big tech giant, shuttered its comparison site play in 2016 – just a year after launch.

“The question for market incumbents is how they protect against being swallowed up by the Amazon machine if this foray proves successful and they make a larger play to offer Amazon branded policies, likely backed by a white-label provider,” Shoenauer said.

“The big thing here is that consumers will become normalised to buying insurance from Amazon, and Amazon will be able to refine its customer portals, the purchasing journey for consumers, and the links between them and the insurance providers.”

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Ascot pauses writing new cover for Ukrainian shipments

Ascot pauses writing new cover for Ukrainian shipments

A senior official from Ascot Group has today revealed that the Lloyd’s of London insurer is pausing writing cover for new shipments using the Ukrainian grains corridor until it can better understand the situation – according to a report from Reuters.

The report noted that Moscow said it was forced to pull out of the Black Sea grain shipping deal following damage to Russian navy ships in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Saturday.

“From today we are pausing on quoting new shipments until we better understand the situation,” Ascot head of cargo Chris McGill told Reuters. “Insurance that has already been issued still stands.”

Read more: Ukrainian grain insurance facility obtains first placement

Ascot and the insurance broking giant Marsh launched a facility for grain traders in late July of this year to provide up to $50 million in cargo cover for every voyage. Reuters noted that the cargo facility has been used by a ‘significant proportion’ of the shipments to date.

“Any shipments that were quoted last week are valid for seven days. However, we had seen a drop off in submissions last week,” McGill said. “It’s new shipments coming to the market since the news that will need consideration.”

Reuters highlighted that international officials have expressed concerns that Moscow might reimpose a blockade on Ukrainian grain, after Russia stated on Saturday that it was suspending its role in the UN-backed programme that escorts cargo ships through the Black Sea.

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“Confluence of events” results in net loss for Swiss Re

"Confluence of events" results in net loss for Swiss Re

Swiss Re has reported a net loss of US$285 million (approx. GBP245.9 million) for the first nine months of 2022, compared to a net income of US$1.3 billion for the same period last year.

In its financial report, Swiss Re explained that the loss was driven by a US$442 million net loss in the third quarter (Q3), particularly the impact of Hurricane Ian on property and casualty reinsurance (P&C Re) and an increase in small- and mid-sized claims.

“The first nine months of this year were marked by a confluence of events affecting Swiss Re’s financial performance: from turbulence in the financial markets to an increase in natural catastrophe claims, surging inflation, and the war in Ukraine,” said Swiss Re group CEO Christian Mumenthaler.

The report also detailed a return on equity (ROE) of -2.1% for the first nine months of 2022, down from an ROE of 6.6% for the same period last year. The latest return on investment (ROI) was driven by negative market-to-market impacts on listed equity investments.

Among Swiss Re’s businesses, P&C Re took the hardest hit from this year’s challenges, with a net loss of US$283 million for the first nine months of 2022, compared with a net income of US$1.5 billion in the same period last year. On the bright side, the global reinsurer’s other businesses have performed well and have remained on track to meet their full-year targets.

“We have bolstered reserves by US$0.7 billion over the past 12 months to address the impact of economic inflation,” said Swiss Re group CFO John Dacey. “Rising interest rates are already helping to compensate for this impact, with the recurring contribution from our fixed-income portfolio rising by around US$100 million in the third quarter alone. Most importantly, despite the challenges this year, we have maintained our very strong capital position and remain committed to our capital management priorities.”

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Open GI expands support for Plum Underwriting and Flood Re partnership

Open GI expands support for Plum Underwriting and Flood Re partnership

Open GI has expanded its partnership with Plum Underwriting by supporting its new enhanced household cover with Flood Re for UK brokers.

By utilising Open GI’s technology, coupled with data enrichment, Plum will be able to code risks in areas that would have been hard to offer cover. This gives brokers who are working with clients in exposed flood areas the opportunity to offer insurance cover. According to Open GI, it is the first technology company to offer this service to brokers.

“We’re delighted to have worked with Open GI and Flood Re to advance the technology around insurer hosted pricing and support our strategy to serve our brokers and customers finding it difficult to obtain flood cover,” said David Whitaker, managing director of Plum Underwriting. “We’re excited to see the opportunities this brings and look forward to working in partnership to further develop our automated specialist home insurance capabilities.”

“This is a fantastic development for the GI market,” said Simon Badley, group chief executive officer, Open GI. “We are pleased to be able to support this particular proposition with our connectivity expertise. This new offering will provide a more informed view of flood risks for both brokers and underwriters that they may have previously been reluctant to take on – but with technology we can enable this to happen.”

“Being able to support Plum Underwriting and expand our offering within the GI market is another step forward,” a spokesperson for Flood Re said. “Climate change brings a number of challenges and by working together, which this partnership demonstrates, we are able to offer products that will support our customers and provide them with better protection.”

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Gallagher reports increase in Q3 earnings

Gallagher’s overall revenues were down slightly at $2,012.0 million this quarter, from $2,105.6 million a year ago. But total revenues for the combined brokerage and risk management segments increased by 15%, including an organic revenue increase of 8.4%.

Brokerage earnings in the third quarter are at $282.5 million, up from $253.6 million a year ago. In the nine months of 2022. In the nine months of 2022, the brokerage segment earned $1.058.5 million versus $845.6 million in the same period last year.

The risk management segment also saw earnings rise, at $26.9 million in Q3 2022 versus $22 million in Q3 2021. For the nine-month period, reported net earnings is at $79.4 million, compared to $64.9 million a year ago.

However, the corporate segment saw a net loss of $52.4 million for Q3, adding up to a net loss of $155.9 million for the nine-month period.

Chairman, president and CEO J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr. said the firm’s outstanding performance has continued during the third quarter. He said in a statement: “Our third quarter renewal premium data shows global premium increases approximate 10.5%, a bit higher than the renewal premium change in the first half of the year. Price increases are mostly consistent with recent quarters across nearly all lines of business.

“Client exposures, including favourable policy endorsements, continue to increase, and new arising claim counts moved higher year over year; these metrics are not reflective of an economic slowdown in our clients’ businesses.”

Commenting on the results, Simon Matson, EMEA CEO said: “Gallagher’s UK business had an extremely good Q3 delivering strong organic growth at 15%. This is a fantastic achievement driven by outstanding results across all our trading division.

“Our Specialty division has had a very strong quarter and is significantly ahead of last year. Our property & casualty, aerospace and construction practices all performed very well and throughout the year have maintained double digit organic growth during each quarter.”

Matson also said Gallagher Re UK is on track to deliver growth with priorities including strategic hires plus development of its existing talent, combined with continued investment in data and analytics.

“Integration of the wider division has been a priority and we now have all London-based colleagues together in one location which will deliver the best service for clients,” Matson added.

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Cybersecurity conversations – moving the dial from ‘if’ to ‘when’

Educating businesses on the cyber risk they face without veering into the arena of scaremongering is a delicate tightrope that all successful cybersecurity firms must walk. But when you read a survey like the one recently conducted by Hornetsecurity which revealed that almost 24% of IT professionals say their organisation has been the victim of a ransomware attack – you realise the conversation needs to shift from “what if?” to “when”.

Find out more: Discover Hornetsecurity’s cybersecurity proposition today

Speaking with Insurance Business, Colin Wright (pictured), VP of EMEA at Hornetsecurity, warned of the need for the right, solution-led conversations around cyber risk to prevent ‘cyber fatigue’. Businesses need to understand the breadth of the risk they’re facing, he said, and the twin myths that need to be busted are – firstly, that it won’t happen to you and secondly, that the threat actors you’re dealing with are anything less than sophisticated and highly organised.

High-profile attacks on multinational conglomerates may dominate the headlines, he said, but a small business being targeted will inevitably be impacted to a greater degree due to the lack of resources at their disposal.

“The average downtime that we see is 22 days. Now imagine being down for 22 days with no access to your data or your network,” he said. “What is the impact of that on your business?… And these guys out there on the dark web are buying millions and millions of email addresses and they’re just taking a shotgun approach, knowing that somebody somewhere is going to click. It’s just a matter of time.

“Training individuals to know what to look out for is so important and we bought a fantastic technology called IT-SEAL that does security phishing training. But if you don’t have anything in place, somebody is going to click, and I term that the ‘Dracula moment’. Because the only way a vampire can come in is if you invite them over the doorstep. And that’s the same with ransomware – it will come in because we as humans are inviting it into our businesses.”

Read more: We’re in dire economic straits, but please don’t skimp on cybersecurity

From his perspective, Wright said, businesses are moving from a human pandemic into a rapidly evolving cyber epidemic – and it’s unsurprising given how reliant we all are on technology and our intangible assets, and how easy it is to get tripped up. A single letter in an email address is all it takes to fool somebody, and users simply don’t have the time to challenge every email.

Reports reveal that about 93% of ransomware threats come in via email, he said, but that’s not where the cybersecurity budget of many businesses is being directed. And because they’re not actively investing in such solutions, what a lot of businesses do not realise is it does not have to be expensive to protect yourself but is non-negotiable in a modern trading environment.

“I heard the other day at an event that 40% of companies, large and small, have no recovery plan from ransomware,” he said. “So, I would challenge everybody to look at that and think ‘what if?’ How will it impact your users, your business, your customers, your staff? Are you going to pay the ransom? Do you have cyber insurance?

“And cyber insurance is great but when you’re hit with ransomware, cyber insurance isn’t going to get your business back. It’s just going to give some money in two months but will you be back online in two months’ time? In fact, we recently ran a webinar that discussed this exact topic with an insurance expert that was very well received – it’s well worth a watch to learn more.”

It is with this conundrum in mind that Hornetsecurity is developing its ‘immutable storage’ solution. Immutable backup is a highly effective way to minimise the impact of a malware attack, he said, by locking up data every time a backup is made in a way that effectively throws away the key to that file. It’s a storage solution that is starting to be picked up by several vendors and Hornetsecurity is focusing on its implications for SMB clients.

Read more: What pressing cyber risks are currently facing UK businesses?

“The big guys can fend for themselves, they’ve got teams of people in place to support them, but why shouldn’t the smaller guys have access to the same level of protection? And it doesn’t have to be expensive,” he said. “Immutable storage really is the last line of defence in the terms of sealing the lock and throwing away the key but in a way so we can recover everything from that backed up file – you just can’t inject anything new in.

“I think the biggest challenge you’ll see to ransomware threat actors moving forward next year will be immutable storage, and they’ll have to find other ways to get into our systems. But I would say to anybody not backing up their environment that they’re not protecting themselves from any form of ransomware. It is the last line of defence – if you look at a Navy ship, they have cruise missiles and all the latest technology but along the sides, even the newest ones still have old-fashioned Gatling guns. And backup is the Gatling gun of protection from ransomware.”

Immutable storage is not just a solution for clients, Wright emphasised but also has significant implications for insurance companies. Insurers don’t want to be paying out high ransom payments, and he believes they should be actively exploring the cost-efficiencies and operational efficiencies afforded by immutable storage – and pushing that out if not mandating it for insureds. It’s a solution that protects everyone, he said, all allow the cyber insurance and cyber security chains.

Constant media reports of cyber incidents incapacitating businesses and organisations of every size and structure also exemplify why everybody should be carrying out regular backups, including on any collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams where users tend to share critical information

Wright advised constant testing of these backups, and working with the right providers to find the simple, accessible, affordable solutions that are available to help mitigate cyber risk.

There are lots of companies out there doing great work, he said, and he would happily validate users looking around to find the solutions that work best for them and their businesses. Of course, cost is a major consideration, particularly for SMEs in the current financial environment but he noted that at the core of this discussion is a simple fact – businesses cannot afford not to pay for the right solutions.

“It’s too expensive not to invest in this,” he said. “It’s too expensive to leave that door open. It’s about how much you value your data, your employees, your customers and your customers’ data – and its role in paying your bills and your mortgage. So, it’s finding the right fit for your particular business and we think at Hornetsecurity that we have solutions that fit from the very smallest customer to the very biggest.

“And I wouldn’t ever want anybody to walk away and not have protection without looking at technologies such as ours. I think the idea this has to be expensive is part of the misconception around the whole tagline of cyber. People hear about Microsoft being hit and think ‘oh my God, protecting against that has got to be expensive’. But it isn’t, it’s only expensive if you haven’t looked into what the solution is. And it becomes very expensive if your data disappears…  The impact of doing nothing is the biggest expense you are ever going to subsume.”

Find out more: Discover Hornetsecurity’s cybersecurity proposition today

Colin Wright joined the Hornetsecurity Group in 2016 to head up the EMEA sales team. He has a wealth of experience in technology sales strategy, having worked in the industry for over 20 years. Colin has an impressive track record for having nurtured the growth of a number of cloud and virtualisation-centred companies and has created a number of successful EMEA sales operations. He previously set up and led companies such as Veeam Software, Vizioncore Inc, Scriptlogic and Embotics.

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