Last May, Mark Clancy, chief information security officer (CISO) for The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., described the current state of cyber risk modeling as “trying to use the count of arrests for a crime to figure out the dollar losses from theft.”
That lack of standards in modeling losses from cyber threats in the commercial insurance business has created opportunities for a growing number of startups to offer benchmarking and FICO-like scores around company risk profiles. They are also allowing carriers to make smarter underwriting decisions around cyber liability. The latest to do so was UpGuard (previously ScriptRock), which unveiled a cybersecurity preparedness score for enterprises in January and has since raised a $17M Series B.
We rounded up several of the risk rating and analysis startups in the cyber insurance space below. Updated: 8/16/2016
1. UpGuard
What they do:
- Formerly ScriptRock, UpGuard unveiled a cybersecurity preparedness score for enterprises called CSTAR to assess risk for both insurance providers and businesses.
- UpGuard is working with wholesale insurance firms including CRC Insurance Services
Location: Mountain View, California
Total Funding: $27.4M
Select Investors: August Capital, Valar Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Pelion Venture Partners, Insurance Australia Group
What they do:
- Security Scorecard offers a security-risk benchmarking platform allowing insurers to conduct assessment of IT threats and key risk indicators for partners and vendors across 10 security categories.
- In October 2015, Zurich Insurance tapped Security Scorecard for third-party risk evaluation and monitoring.
Location: New York, New York
Total Funding: $33.4M
Select Investors: Sequoia Capital, BOLDstart Ventures, Evolution Equity Partners, Google Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures
3. BitSight
What they do:
- BitSight offers a security rating solution for cyber insurance rated on a scale of 250-900 as well as 12 months of historical data and comparisons with industry benchmarks.
- In September 2015, catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide partnered with BitSight to built out its cyber risk model.
Location: Cambridge, Massaschusetts
Total Funding: $47M
Select Investors: Flybridge Capital Partners, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures, Comcast Ventures
4. QuadMetrics
What they do:
- QuadMetrics creates security and risk profiles in a cloud-based platform including a prediction index around future security breaches.
- QuadMetrics was formed out of research conducted at the University of Michigan in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security.
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Select Investors: Acquired by FICO in June 2016
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