XL Catlin has launched its cyber and data-protection insurance policy in Asia Pacific.

The company said it covers business interruption arising from a network compromise, associated extortion demands and first-party incident response costs such as notification of the compromise of the network, forensic investigations and public relations support.

It also covers third-party liability costs that organisations face as a result of a data breach, including any regulatory investigation or contractual liability associated with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Timothy Powell, regional manager, International Financial Lines for XL Catlin’s Insurance business in Asia Pacific said: “Combining the global resources of our underwriting and claims teams with the expertise of our breach response providers, our cyber and data-protection insurance policy offers companies the broad cyber coverage they need under one easy-to-understand policy.

“We know there is a real need for this policy across Asia Pacific because as technology and digital connectivity evolve, companies are finding themselves exposed to new and more sophisticated cyber attacks. A report by Juniper Research reinforces this — it is estimated that the cost of data breaches will reach $2.1 trillion globally by 2019, almost four times the estimated cost of breaches in 2015. No company is fully secure, no matter how superior its cyber-defence mechanisms are. They must proactively embed cyber-risk management in their strategies and operations to combat the unrelenting threat of cyber attacks.”