AIR Worldwide Collaborates with Leading Security Risk Firms to Build Advanced Cyber Model

September 14, 2015 / 4 min read

BOSTON, Sept. 14, 2015 — Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR) today announced that it is collaborating with leading security risk and cyber data providers BitSight Technologies and Risk Based Security (RBS) to build an advanced cyber risk model. The AIR Cyber Risk Model will serve to help the insurance industry better manage the evolving threat of cyber attacks by incorporating into the model the most up-to-date and complete incident data, real-time security ratings of companies, exposure data, and supplier data in the “cyber supply chain.” AIR Worldwide is a Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK) business.

AIR will leverage terabytes of data gathered by BitSight from sensors deployed across the Internet. This includes BitSight’s security ratings by industry, company size, and company headquarters location.

“Cybersecurity is viewed as a top priority for many companies, and the importance and value of security ratings have already been realized across numerous industries,” said Ira Scharf, general manager of worldwide cyber insurance at BitSight. “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.”

Risk Based Security 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.

“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,” said Inga Goddijn, executive vice president, Risk Based Security. “Comprehensive modeling of cyber risk has never been more important. We’re pleased to collaborate with an innovative company like AIR to help them utilize this valuable data for building a more complete and advanced cyber risk model.”

“Leveraging these key data assets from BitSight and Risk Based Security is a major step forward in developing a robust cyber model,” said Scott Stransky, manager and principal scientist at AIR Worldwide. “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 AIR Cyber Risk Model will offer a set of deterministic scenarios that will allow companies to begin to truly understand their aggregated risk from large-scale cyber attacks.

About BitSight Technologies
BitSight Technologies is transforming how companies manage information security risk with objective, evidence-based security ratings. The company’s Security Rating Platform continuously analyzes vast amounts of external data on security behaviors in order to help organizations manage third-party risk, benchmark performance, and assess and negotiate cyber insurance premiums. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, BitSight is backed by the National Science Foundation, Globespan Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, and Liberty Global Ventures. For more information, please visit www.bitsighttech.com or follow @BitSight on Twitter.

About Risk Based Security, Inc.
Risk Based Security equips organizations with vulnerability intelligence, data breach analytics, risk management services, ISO/IEC 27001:2013 consulting, and on-demand security solutions to establish customized risk-based programs to address information security and compliance challenges. For more information, please visit http://www.riskbasedsecurity.com/ or call 855-RBS-RISK.

About AIR Worldwide
AIR Worldwide (AIR) is the scientific leader and most respected provider of risk modeling software and consulting services. AIR founded the catastrophe modeling industry in 1987 and today models the risk from natural catastrophes and terrorism in more than 90 countries. More than 400 insurance, reinsurance, financial, corporate, and government clients rely on AIR software and services for catastrophe risk management, insurance-linked securities, detailed site-specific wind and seismic engineering analyses, and agricultural risk management. AIR Worldwide, a Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK) business, is headquartered in Boston with additional offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.air-worldwide.com.

Contact:

Kevin Long
AIR Worldwide
617-267-6645
klong@air-worldwide.com