AIR unveils cyber risk model
Catastrophe risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide has unveiled plans to build an advanced cyber risk model.
The model is being developed in collaboration with security risk and cyber data providers BitSight Technologies and Risk Based Security (RBS).
AIR will leverage terabytes of data gathered by BitSight from sensors deployed across the internet, including BitSight’s security ratings by industry, company size, and company headquarters location.
RBS has provided AIR with historical incident data on more than 16,000 breaches. The RBS data contains industry-specific details on threat vectors and vulnerabilities and data breach information on businesses, industries, and geographies.
Scott Stransky, manager and principal scientist at AIR Worldwide, said: “Leveraging these key data assets from BitSight and RBS is a major step forward in developing a robust cyber model.
“We’re developing a comprehensive cyber industry exposure database that can enable us to better estimate potential financial losses to entire sectors and portfolios due to common vulnerabilities. The AIR model will be critical to a true understanding of the financial implications of cyber attacks, including the aggregation risk associated with a mega-scale attack.”
In addition to probabilistic loss estimation, the model will offer a set of deterministic scenarios. These scenarios will allow companies to begin to truly understand their aggregated risk from large-scale cyber attacks, according to AIR.
Ira Scharf, general manager of worldwide cyber insurance at BitSight, said: “Cyber security is viewed as a top priority for many companies, and the importance and value of security ratings have already been realised across numerous industries.
“As more and more companies purchase cyber insurance, insurers are becoming increasingly concerned with aggregation risk. We’re collaborating with AIR to help them more accurately account for cyber risk in the entire supply chain, such as security vulnerabilities on hosting companies, cloud providers, and other third-party suppliers.”
Inga Goddijn, executive vice president of RBS, added: “The pace of data breach activity shows no sign of slowing, despite the unprecedented focus on protecting systems and data from attack and compromise. In fact, if the current rate of disclosure continues, 2015 will be the worst year on record for the number of breach events reported.
“Comprehensive modelling of cyber risk has never been more important. We’re pleased to collaborate with an innovative company like AIR to help them utilise this valuable data for building a more complete and advanced cyber risk model.”
