At-Bay Leverages Underwriting Expertise to Bind Policy for Company After Complex M&A Activity

Overview

A small software development company for online legal resources suffered a significant loss after acquiring a subsidiary, which introduced unexpected liabilities that led to a cyber incident. Although this incident was not indicative of the parent company’s security posture, which was generally very strong, its incumbent cyber and tech E&O insurance provider ended up non-renewing the company’s policy due to the claim.

Following a non-renewal of coverage and a recent claim, it can often be challenging for businesses to secure replacement terms. Despite the company’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity and its recent claim, At-Bay was confident about providing insurance coverage to the software company given its strong security controls and use of AWS Security Hub. We provided the company with a new Cyber and Tech E&O policy at a competitive premium.

An Acquisition Resulted in a Cyber Incident

The software developer had a robust security posture with substantial security controls in place, including a top-performing email security solution and AWS cybersecurity tools. Unfortunately, despite the company’s significant security investments, a company it acquired introduced unexpected cyber risk. Within weeks of the acquisition, the acquired company suffered a data breach that was covered by the parent company’s cyber insurance policy at the time.

Seeking a New Insurance Provider

The legacy insurance carrier that had been providing cyber and tech E&O coverage to the software company didn’t renew its policy following this claim. The software company had to return to the market to find a new insurer — a task that can be challenging amid increased M&A activity, especially after a recent claim. 

At-Bay Underwriters have years of experience underwriting complex situations such as M&A and prior claims activity. Despite the increased complexity of underwriting accounts with recent claims activity, At-Bay was willing and able to find a solution for the software company when other carriers declined to offer terms. 

A Comparable Policy

Not only can it be challenging to get insurance after a claim, it can be especially difficult to get competitive terms. Fortunately, in this instance, At-Bay was able to provide the software company with competitive policy terms similar to its previous cyber and tech E&O policy.

Through our proprietary Active Risk Monitoring and industry-leading cyber underwriting, At-Bay evaluated the company’s security controls and determined that we felt comfortable offering the company insurance coverage with the same aggregate limits at a similar premium, despite them having experienced this prior incident.

About At-Bay

At-Bay is the world’s first InsurSec provider designed from the ground up to help businesses tackle cyber risk head on. By combining industry-leading insurance with world-class cybersecurity technology, At-Bay offers end-to-end prevention and protection for the digital age. At-Bay helps its 30,000+ customers close their security technology and skills gap — all through their Cyber insurance policy — making them up to 5X less likely to be hit with a ransomware attack as compared to the industry average.* At-Bay offers Cyber, Tech E&O, and Miscellaneous Professional Liability (MPL) policies.

* Frequency Based on Primary and Excess Cyber and Tech Errors & Omissions losses reported and exposure earned through 9/30/2022, evaluated as of 10/1/2022, and 2020-2021 industry analysis.