Coalition launched an incentive program designed to encourage policyholders to implement cyber attack mitigation known as MFA. Liberty Mutual’s Ironshore Environmental is introducing a smartphone app that allows risk managers real-time access to claims professionals after immediate notice of an environmental incident. Aon plc started marketing a new loss forecasting product designed to enable insurers to view real-time portfolio risks from two of the costliest perils out there.

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Coalition, an MGA focused on cyber insurance for small and midsize businesses, rolled out a new incentive program to reward policyholders who implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA, also commonly known as 2FA) on their business email accounts.

The San Francisco-based InsurTech said that the incentive stems, in part, from data showing MFA can block most automated cyber attacks, and Coalition claims to be the first cyber insurance provider to incentivize the practice. If a Coalition policyholder has MFA or 2FA enabled and required on business email, and a funds transfer fraud, security failure or data breach incident occurs due to a business email compromise, they are eligible for a 50 percent reduction in the largest applicable deductible, up to $10,000.

Multi-Factor Authentication adds a layer of protection to systems by requiring an additional factor of authentication beyond a username and password. Using MFA, users must also provide a digital token or code that is provided by a secondary device in the user’s possession to gain access to their account. Having these two (or more) levels of authentication in place makes it nearly impossible for a hacker to compromise an account even if they’ve stolen or compromised a user’s username and password, Coalition said.

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Liberty Mutual’s Ironshore Environmental is introducing IronResponse, a smartphone app that allows risk managers real-time access to claims professionals after immediate notice of an environmental incident.

The IronResponse app will be provided to every Ironshore Environmental policyholder, and the company said a risk manager can easily download the app, available on both Android and Apple smartphones, enabling the insured to push one button to report an incident.

The phone app activates an instantaneous connection with the call center to identify the account, reaching an Ironshore claims manager in less than five minutes. IronResponse also houses a customized alert distribution list that automatically notifies the insured’s designated business partners, including insurance brokers and underwriters, the company said.

Ironshore Environmental said that IronResponse simplifies the reporting of an environmental event and offers added services and resources to help the risk manager in achieving the best possible outcome following an incident, spill or other environmental disaster. Risk managers can leverage tools provided in the IronResponse app, including incident history, assistance with required regulatory reporting, and communication with Ironshore’s panel of environmental consultants and experts. IronResponse is equipped with sophisticated geo-location technology that can isolate the site, utilizing the app that reports the latitude and longitude coordinates with accuracy of within three to five meters.

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Aon plc started marketing its Automated Event Response (AER) loss forecasting product designed to enable insurers to view real-time portfolio risks from two of the costliest perils: U.S. hurricane and European windstorm.

During a catastrophe, insurers need to understand which areas have been impacted in a timely manner to prioritize claims response and obtain quick loss estimates to inform their stakeholders. To help achieve this, Aon’s Impact Forecasting team developed real-time loss modeling by combining weather forecasts from different meteorological institutions, including the National Hurricane Center in the U.S., with an insurer’s portfolio data.

The modeling process is fully automated with email alerts – forecasting losses and claims count for the next five days – sent to insurers every six hours when the losses go above a pre-agreed threshold. Insurers will be able to use this information to prioritize their claims adjustment activities, such as when, where and how many adjustors are needed.

The service is based on Impact Forecasting’s U.S. hurricane and European windstorm models, which have been calibrated using extensive detailed loss data from historical events that created significant economic impacts.

Sources: Coalition, Liberty Mutual/Ironshore and Aon