Proximus and AXA Partners, and separately Accenture, Generali and Vodafone Business team up to offer consumers and businesses insurance against cybercrime
First up. Accenture, insurance firm Generali and Vodafone Business have developed a “package of cyber insurance services that help customers quickly and effectively recognize, respond to and recover from cybersecurity threats and incidents.”
The offer includes “cyber risk assessments, phishing simulations and learning programs, aims to help strengthen insurance customers’ ability to effectively defend against cyberattacks, recover quickly with minimal business disruption, and mitigate the impact both internally and to third parties,” according to the press statement.
COVID increased cybercrime
Last week, Orange Cyberdefense, which provides security services for multinationals and smaller businesses around the world, published the third edition of its Security Navigator report, Research-driven insights to build a data-driven society.
It reports the results of monitoring Orange’s 18 Security Operations Centres (SOCs) and 14 CyberSOCS, analysing more than 60 billion security events daily. It makes sobering reading, with an overall increase of 13% year-on-year (from November 2020 to October 2021) – you can download it free from here.
As a global cybersecurity provider, Accenture will offer Generali’s corporate and SME customers cyber-risk assessments and provide responses to cyber incidents. It will also give Generali’s cyber-insurance underwriters access to Accenture’s Security Academy platform.
The latter offers learning programs, in multiple languages, on cyber threats and how to address them.
Vodafone Business will work with Accenture to deliver post-breach response services to SME customers, to help them recover from cyberattacks, from an initial categorisation of the incident, to response activities and complex cybersecurity investigations.
Support for SMEs
Europ Assistance, part of Generali Group, will provide global coordination and serve as a contact point for corporate and SME customers, offering 24/7 front-line support to help clients identify cyber incidents and activate the right resolution services.
The aim is to offer the solutions globally, starting in Europe at the beginning of 2022, although they will be tailored to suit local market conditions and clients’ preferences.
Patrick Donegan, Founder and Principal Analyst at HardenStance, indicated his enthusiasm for the development in a series of tweets, pointing out tis is the first major initiative to come out of Vodafone Business’ security services tie-up with Accenture.
Donegan noted, “The potentially big implication for the cyber market as a whole is the commitment to delivering post-breach response services to SMEs… This is almost a greenfield market so while it is potentially very encouraging news…there are real ‘rubber hits the road’ questions”, including whether the insurance would cough up ranson.
Proximus and AXA Partners in Belgium
Second – Proximus plans to help Belgian consumers be better prepared to combat cyberattacks, and has been testing a joint offer, Cyber Care, with AXA Partners since the start of this year.
Testing is now completed and the operator claims to be the first operator to launch such an insurance policy.
For €4.99 a month, Cyber Care offers all family members living under the same roof 24/7 assistance, including technical, legal, financial, and psychological support, if they notice any suspicious online behaviour or fall victim to fraud.
Consumer cover
Consumers who are concerned that their identity or personal data may have been used fraudulently, can call Cyber Care staff for legal assistance, and psychological support if necessary.
The insurance policy also online shopping issues, like non-delivery or incorrect delivery of an order, and can refund up to €5,000.
The product also covers online harassment and defamation, providing anyone who has been affected with legal and psychological support, plus technical assistance so they can try to remove defamatory posts – whether photos or texts.
It is estimated that 10% of online buyers in Belgium have been the victim of fraud, and up to a quarter of young people have suffered online bullying. The situation has worsened since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak: for instance, seven times more cases of bank fraud were reported in 2020 compared with previous years.
Proximus says Cyber Care is part of its “social commitments”.