Pen Underwriting rolls out cyber risk management suite to empower brokers and help clients fight cybercrime

Published On : 09 Nov 2022

Pen Underwriting today announces a new UK strategic partnership with Paladin Cyber to arm brokers and their clients with practical cyber risk management tools that will bolster their resilience to cybercrime and reduce the risk of data loss, extortion and exfiltration.

Launched today is the first phase of the partnership, which sees Pen offering all of its brokers a new scanning solution from Paladin Cyber as a value-added benefit for their clients and prospects to help counter cyber threats.

The solution generates an easy-to-understand risk report identifying potential vulnerabilities in an organisation’s defences against serious cyber threats – such as ransomware, email compromises and other forms of unauthorised access into their IT systems – and provides clear, actionable advice on how best to improve their information security posture.

Simple to run and non-intrusive, the tool scans an organisation’s internet-facing network infrastructure in real time using publicly available information derived from their web domain. In other words, the same thing cyber criminals do when assessing an organisation’s vulnerability to attack. Paladin’s report makes it clear where and how an organisation can secure its systems.

Rather than simply factoring findings from the vulnerability scans into its cyber risk underwriting decisions, Pen is instead furnishing brokers with the results to enable them to discuss with clients or prospects any weaknesses identified in the live snapshot assessment, and pass on practical ways they can mitigate negative findings to improve their risk profile and resilience.

The second phase – Paladin Shield – will roll out as an added-value benefit from January 2023 through brokers with Pen cyber policyholders, offering easy, enterprise-wide protection to businesses in a way that complements any other cyber security products companies may already use. This comprehensive cyber risk management solution utilises AI to detect suspicious emails in real-time, provides secure browsing activity, blocks dangerous downloads and automatically scans systems to identify vulnerabilities, while using phishing simulations to create targeted employee training that reduces the hazard of human error. All of this backed up by on-call support from Paladin’s cyber security specialists.

Hamir Patel, Head of Cyber at Pen Underwriting, said: “Our role at Pen is to help our brokers win and retain business, just as much as it is to devise effective solutions for their customers to mitigate and manage their risks. That’s why we want to incorporate Paladin Cyber’s expertise and tools in a way that empowers our brokers, rather than simply factoring the results of vulnerability scans into our underwriting decisions.

“Although take-up of cyber cover is increasing, it remains low compared to other business insurance coverages despite our world being increasingly dominated by cyber risks. We hope by having access to these client-specific but easy-to-understand risk reports, brokers feel better equipped to have those all-important conversations about real-life vulnerabilities but also the practical steps an organisation can take to improve their information security and defences.

“Cyber attacks are painful, prolonged and expensive to deal with, so the best thing we can do is to help clients minimise their chance of suffering any unauthorised access to their IT networks, systems paralysis or cyber extortion, or at least minimising its impact. In turn, this will also help ensure cyber cover for businesses can remain affordable, available and sustainable as exposures continue to increase and evolve.”

Xing Xin, CEO of Paladin Cyber, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Pen and its brokers to help their clients strengthen their resilience to increasingly common types of cyber attack, such as ransomware and phishing.

“Such attacks are now a matter of when, not if. Misconfigured systems and phishing account for over 90% of business cyber losses*. A little bit of time combined with the right solution delivers a major reduction to cyber risk. Paladin Shield helps companies tackle these easily preventable cyber threats without needing to hire additional IT or security headcount, and our customers experience substantially fewer cyber incidents and losses as a result.

“We’re excited to support Pen’s policyholders and help reduce the prevalence of UK organisations falling victim to cybercrime.”


*Based on research conducted by Paladin Cyber using own US data alongside US and UK industry data, correct as of November 2022.