JLT Specialty USA, one of the world's leading specialty-focused providers of insurance, reinsurance and employee benefits related advice, brokerage and associated services, is partnering with academics at Stanford University, a global research leader, to build a comprehensive cyber breach data set that will enhance JLT's already robust cyber modeling capabilities.
"We value the importance of robust data where it makes a positive impact on our clients’ businesses, and partnering with faculty and researchers at Stanford to build an industry leading database will make our approach to understanding cyber risk even stronger," said Mike Giacobbe, Head of Analytics and Consulting at JLT Specialty USA.
"We’re not just using data to see into the past -and by extrapolating around our specialty experience and leveraging Stanford’s research and collaboration leadership, we can have a far better view into what our clients need today, and tomorrow."
"We are excited about our collaboration with JLT in this project, and our anticipated ability to provide meaningful cyber event information to industry and policy makers. The combination of JLT’s cyber experience with our research expertise will make for a superior data set that the community is seeking" said George Triantis, Meyers Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and Faculty Co-Director of the Stanford Cyber Initiative.
In the risk-management community, Stanford is well known for its Securities Litigation Analytics project, a research platform used by industry professionals in the D&O liability space, and the Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, which provides basic information about securities class action cases and makes court documents freely available to the general public. Stanford regularly hosts collaboration forums for participants to learn about emerging risk issues.
The cyber breach data set, constructed ground up from publically available resources, will be a key tool used to enhance JLT’s industry-leading Cyber Cost and Volatility Analysis Model. This model considers many factors that contribute to the frequency and severity of cyber losses in the calculation of potential loss scenarios; including data breach; theft and fraud; bodily injury; data asset loss; cyber extortion; network interruption and property damage.
JLT can project a clients’ bottom up exposure to cyber related losses. Using the cyber breach data as a baseline to determine the most efficient insurance program structures and provides customized limit and retention strategies on an individual client level.
"As organizations continue to evaluate their exposure to cyber risk, they are growing increasingly frustrated with the void in the market for meaningful and relevant tools," said Shannon Groeber, Senior Vice President, Cyber and E&O Practice at JLT.
"The conversations around cyber risk are happening at every level of organizations, and that conversation is incomplete without meaningful data and potentially wrong when based on information like benchmarking. Our clients have been asking us for more. Our proprietary model combines our Analytics & Consulting and Brokerage teams with researchers at Stanford so we can pioneer new ways to think about cyber risk. This model will answer our clients questions of how much it will cost them, based on data and experience. Our clients’ demand informed decision making and are providing them with the tool to address it."