Data breaches can be accidental, carried out buy malicious staff, or ex-staff – and then there’s the professional ransomware operators. They want to suspend your business online until you pay a large wedge to a Bitcoin account. Not good.
Gh0st – a dedicated ransomware modelling solution – is today launched by Capsicum Re, the specialist reinsurance broker. The proprietary model will help clients and markets quantify diverse and realistic ransomware scenarios and optimise their portfolios in a rapidly changing and challenging cyber claims environment.
As insurers face the ‘perfect storm’ of an increasing frequency of ransomware events, larger extortion payments and longer periods of business interruption, Capsicum Re has invested in the flexible solution enabling clients to model portfolio aggregation PMLs (probable maximum losses), attritional losses as well as some known historical ransomware strains.
Devised, developed and delivered in-house by Capsicum Re’s specialist team of cyber analysts and actuaries, Gh0st allows clients to input all their affirmative cyber policies and extract a true picture of exposure by explicitly modelling all the first party costs arising from a widespread ransomware event, such as business interruption or replacement of affected hardware from ‘bricking’.
Gh0st flexible modelling scenarios include:
- An extreme 1 in 200 event – analogous to a Lloyd’s ‘Realistic Disaster Scenario’
- A variety of historical ransomware strains that have been observed in the wild – including targeted ‘big game hunting’ ransomwares such as Ryuk and commercialised Ransomware-as-a-Service strains like Sodinokibi frequently sold on the Dark Web
- Customizable ransomware events – where clients can enter a wide selection of parameters to define their own extreme scenarios
- Aggregations monitored by sector, by geography and by company size
Justyna Pikinska, Head of Analytics, Property and Specialty Lines, at Capsicum Re, said: “We believe our Gh0st ransomware model represents a powerful addition to our analytics 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.”
Commenting on the in-house development and launch of Gh0st, Ian Newman, Capsicum Re’s Global Head of Cyber, added: “The rising frequency and scale of ransomware attacks poses a clear and present danger to the global insurance industry, which Gh0st addresses 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.”
Rupert Swallow, Capsicum Re CEO, said: “Gh0st is yet another future-focused development for Capsicum Re’s award-winning cyber team. Amidst global warnings of businesses’ heightened vulnerability to cyber-attack due to the unprecedented switch to remote working, and Lloyd’s own increased scrutiny of cyber risk – by adding ransomware to its list of realistic disaster scenarios – innovative modelling solutions like this one are clearly needed. Thanks to our team’s hard work, Capsicum Re is able to deliver on what is a very real demand.”
For more information and a detailed demo on how Ghost can help quantify ransomware exposure and optimise portfolios in a rapidly changing claims environment, please contact Justyna.Pikinska@CapsicumRe.com
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