Mitigating Risk and Preventing Advanced Email Attacks with an AI-Based Solution

Kyle Lutterman, AVP, Cybersecurity Risk Engineering:

Arch is an insurance company. We specialize in various different lines of insurance from mortgage to reinsurance to cyber insurance as well. Our clients are Fortune 100s to small to midsize businesses.

We have a very strong product in terms of underwriting insurance, and then we also have a very robust claims operation as well. Ransomware and BEC are probably two of the largest triggers that will cause a claim to be made. We see a lot of claims that arise from phishing, from malware.

Shiraz Saeed, Vice President, Cyber Risk:

So the challenge that we have for underwriting, and the hardest thing that carriers face is, "How do we quantify what is a good risk?" Or, "Who has good quality control procedures?"

Right now, the cyber risk insurance industry is in a transition period. You're noticing a strong emphasis on cybersecurity controls, and the maturity of the cybersecurity controls of an organization, before and after buying the insurance policy. So we're looking for companies that have expertise in the space but that are also forward-thinking.

One of the cool things that we like about Abnormal Security is the fact that they're using machine learning and artificial intelligence in the way that they are screening and go after and attacking malicious emails.

One of the cool features we like is it has an ability to monitor the malicious emails that have come in and out of the traffic. It can be a complement or a supplement to other email security tools, and we can improve on an existing program.

Lutterman:

Abnormal's ability to identify, using AI, new and emerging risk and threats without having to depend on legacy IOCs, allow it to realize when an email is coming from a new source, or from a potentially spoofed domain. This really allows customers to focus on mitigating their email controls.

So we really have to look beyond the typical email security tools that are in place and focus on the emerging technologies that are really having a profound effect on mitigating a lot of the new attacks that we're seeing through email.

A tool like Abnormal allows users to focus on their email which is a primary driver of top and bottom-line growth, both internally and externally.

Shiraz Saeed, Vice President, Cyber Risk:

Partnering with us as an insurance company [and] with a security platform like Abnormal helps businesses in our country and around the world prevent risk from happening.

The top three drivers of loss when it comes to a policyholder for insurance are: number one, ransomware; number two, business email compromise; and then the third thing is invoice manipulation or invoice fraud.

One of the cool things that we like about Abnormal Security is the fact that they're using machine learning and artificial intelligence in the way that they are screening and trying to go after and attacking malicious emails.

There is a return on investment here and there's a preservation and protection of the actual business unit, which means overall, if you invest in this tool, you're going to improve your productivity, which is going to improve your top line and your bottom line.