Insurers are facing something of a “perfect storm” at the moment. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, they have been hit with an increased frequency of ransomware events, longer periods of business interruption and larger extortion payments – prompting one reinsurance broker to attempt to come up with a solution.
Capsicum Re has now unveiled a modelling solution that can quickly quantify ransomware exposure threats. Known as Gh0st, it helps clients and markets quantify realistic scenarios so they can model probable maximum losses (PMLs) and attritional losses.
The solution has been developed in-house and sees clients input their affirmative cyber policies to extract all the first party costs of a widespread ransomware event. It includes several scenarios – such as the Lloyd’s ‘realistic disaster scenario’ of a one in 200 event, a host of historical ransomware strains, and customisable events that allow clients to enter a wide selection of parameters to define their own scenarios.
According to Justyna Pikinska, head of analytics, property and specialty lines at Capsicum Re, also named as Elite Women in ReInsurance, it represents a “powerful addition” to the firm’s armoury.
“It further enhances our ability to service clients, helping them to not only better quantify cyber risk but also monitor their exposure to the specific, expanding threat of rapidly weaponised ransomware,” she said.
Meanwhile, Capsicum Re’s global head of cyber Ian Newman believes Gh0st addresses a growing threat head on.
“By allowing clients to calibrate ransomware scenarios to their portfolio size and appetite, it’s a prime example of how our specialist analytics practice is taking proprietary knowledge, extensive market research and threat actor analysis and transforming them into practical solutions that address and inform insurers’ rising cyber exposure,” he said.
