Weightmans looks to bridge cyber confusion gap with specialist team

Law firm Weightmans has established a team of cyber specialists to help businesses and their insurers build resilience in the face of increasing cyber threats.

Called CyXcel, it will provide organisations with a 360⁰ view of their exposure to cyber threats, while assisting them in boosting resilience and planning for incidents.

Weightmans says a key aim of the team is to “make businesses, insurers and underwriters better equipped with the information and resilience to ensure they have a comprehensive view of the risks they face”.

CyXcel is made up of 15 businesses, together covering international law and regulation, IT security, forensics, intelligence and public relations.

Weightmans says it is “the first time a global team of experts has been brought together in this way to help businesses understand their risk profile, define and implement a resilience strategy and develop effective response planning.” 

Ed Lewis, partner at Weightmans and project lead for CyXcel, said: “The sheer volume of cyber and data threats we are now seeing mean it’s a case of when, not if, an organisation will fall victim to some form of breach – whether it’s the result of human error or criminal attack.

“The market for cyber insurance cover is maturing rapidly to keep pace, but the misconception persists that an organisation is resilient and adequately protected simply because they’ve bought a cyber policy.

“Through a robust process of risk analysis and incident planning, CyXcel will help individual businesses become a much more attractive proposition to underwriters by identifying, contextualising and mitigating their specific risks, while simultaneously determining the appropriate cover and limits they need to transfer their exposure effectively.

“Insurers can be reassured that they have done all they can to minimise the impact of a potential breach and have robust plans in place to respond to threats.” 

CyXcel offers three products for policy holders – resilience strategy, incident planning and incident response – in addition to a range of insurance-related services to support claims and underwriting functions. As an international group, CyXcel can work across jurisdictions to represent businesses with a global footprint, and also implements and delivers the incident response plan in the event of an attack.

“How an organisation responds in the event of a breach is crucial,” added Lewis. “But even more important is the work done ahead of an attack to improve readiness and resilience. Shoring up a business’s resilience is a matter which goes right up to board level. With the potential of large financial penalties and personal exposure, alongside severe business disruption, C-suites are increasingly under pressure to prove the steps they’ve taken to bolster their business against an attack.”