Data transparency key to unlocking cyber capacity: Intangic CEO
The key challenge in cyber insurance is the lack of data transparency for risk assessment. While artificial intelligence and predictive algorithms are promising, understanding the relevant data for predicting cyber events to prevent losses remains a challenge.
Ryan Dodd, the founder and chief executive officer of Intangic MGA, provides a unique insight into the issue. Since launching in March this year, Intangic MGA has gained attention with its innovative parametric policy, CyFi.
The firm has forged a strategic alliance with re/insurer AXA XL, a partnership Dodd characterised as “a big move that goes beyond the traditional kind of managing general agent (MGA) relationship”, with the aim of delivering holistic solutions that transcend mere risk transfer.
“What we can do to effectively avoid a loss—rather than what happens in the case of a loss—is really what we’re bringing to the market,” Dodd stated. “We want to prevent financial volatility and help businesses maintain smooth operations to avoid any negative surprises and disruption.”
“We want to prevent financial volatility and help businesses maintain smooth operations.” Ryan Dodd, Intangic
He added: “We’re talking not only about the risk transfer but also about managing your retention through technology and financial solutions.”
Dodd believes that although traditional insurers have adeptly managed various risks, the emphasis on cyber risks has largely been on post-event recovery.
Breaking away from the typical aggressive startup mindset, Dodd remarked: “We’re not looking to move fast and break things. We’re not aiming to disrupt but to complement.” His vision is clear: to understand the key challenges customers face with technology risk and shift the focus from post-event solutions to proactive loss prevention.
A lack of cash
Dodd highlighted the scarcity of funds in the reinsurance and primary insurance markets, especially for cyber risks.
“Something is clearly not allowing the reinsurance market to grow,” he said. “In cyber, there isn’t a standard transparency around assessing an investment. The absence of clear datasets to determine high and low risks makes it challenging to attract significant outside capital.”
He expects this issue to linger until more technologies help to make risk assessment transparent and universally accepted.
By sharing this transparent risk assessment method with major capacity providers, Dodd believes the market can gradually develop to where investors, with a clearer understanding of the risks, are more inclined to invest.
Dodd acknowledged the potential of AI and machine learning in delivering high-level analytics cost-effectively, but noted that their effectiveness is contingent on the quality of input data.
He said: “If you train an AI chatbot with limited data, it will provide increasingly incorrect answers. But with resources such as OpenAI that can scan the internet for several years, you get more accurate responses.
“So the problem with cyber insurance goes back to the very first thing—transparency around the data that’s collected in order to make the risk assessment—and that’s still the main problem,” he emphasised. “A lot more work needs to be done around gathering consistent datasets that are relevant to predicting events.”
