Markel launches pre-loss services for UK cyber clients

Markel has announced the launch of its pre-loss services for UK Cyber360 policyholders.

The offering includes a complimentary one-hour call with an experienced cyber and data risk lawyer from Markel Law to discuss privacy laws and UK regulatory developments.

Markel Law will also be offering a privacy policy review service, designed to make sure that existing policies are compliant and in line with industry best practice.

Mark Rankin, head of civil litigation at Markel Law, said: “Data has become a central component in most modern businesses and brings with it a constantly changing set of legal and regulatory challenges.

“Markel Law is regularly involved and highly experienced in helping clients navigate the fallout from data and privacy breaches.

“We’re excited by the opportunity to use that experience and our commercial know-how to support Markel’s UK cyber clients in identifying pre-emptive steps that can be taken to minimise the considerable risks without them becoming a barrier to business activity.”

Cyber threats

The new offering comes at a time when cyber threats and data breaches are growing.

For example, data breaches cost UK businesses an average of £3.2m in 2023, with the UK being the sixth most expensive country for data breaches in the world, according to the Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023.

This is in addition to the government’s Cybersecurity Breaches Survey, published on 24 January 2024, which revealed that 59% of medium-sized businesses experienced cyber breaches or attacks in the previous 12 months.

The pre-loss services are free to use. Markel UK’s cyber clients can also have a claims onboarding call to find out more about how the Markel cyber claims and breach response partners can assist in the event of a cyber incident.

And through the insurer’s partnership with Black Kite – a third-party cyber risk intelligence firm – clients will be able to access their own cyber security assessment through the Black Kite platform for free.

Chris Burgess, director of cyber at Markel International, said: “The cyber risk landscape is increasingly complex, driven by fast-moving technology, an evolving regulatory and privacy law landscape, as well as a constantly changing group of threat actors.

“At Markel, we feel we’re uniquely positioned as a business because we’re going behind risk transfer solutions by offering these additional pre-loss services to help clients manage their cyber risk.

“The complimentary one-hour call and policy review pre-loss services with Markel Law are truly a differentiator as few competitors are currently offering this in the market.”