Sixfold Resources

If cybercrime were measured in terms of GDP, it’d be the world’s third richest nation, eclipsing the economies of Japan, Germany, and India. With earnings measured in escalating $trillions, this growth “industry” shows no sign of slowing—or stagnating. Cybercriminals are quick to take advantage of emerging tech, and cyber insurers must also innovate to keep pace.

Carriers are increasingly turning to new classes of tech-forward solutions to accelerate review cycles, slash data processing costs, and navigate a risk landscape that changes ludicrously fast. In this post, I’ll outline how Sixfold’s AI risk assessment helps insurers grab their part of the industry’s fastest-growing segment.

Cyber risk analysis at scale

Sixfold provides underwriters with an efficient alternative to traditional workflows that are often time reliant on paper workflows and human intermediation. 

Sixfold taps proprietary AI to build a virtual model of each carrier’s unique risk appetite by ingesting existing underwriting guidelines (be they in the form of an official handbook, a loose assortment of PDFs, or even just historic underwriting decisions), which can then be easily scaled out to the entire org. 

Crucially to cyber, these digital guidelines can be iterated centrally and disseminated instantly to accommodate new risks such as a freshly unearthed CVE or emerging malware threat. Building digital underwriting models could take weeks or even months using traditional techniques, but with Sixfold, it can be completed in hours. This is our platform’s superpower, but it’s not the only way we’re making cyber work.

Accelerated review cycles

Cyber underwriters are under pressure to expedite case reviews to meet skyrocketing demand but data shows they’ve been challenged to keep pace. 

A recent survey found that companies saying it took more than six months to get cyber coverage increased by more than 7X (!) between 2022 and 2023. Demand bottlenecks are one part of the problem, but a more fundamental issue is at play: cyber coverage applications are painfully inefficient. 

Traditional methods often rely on underwriters manually reviewing data from IT questionnaires and additional submitted materials. This process requires underwriters to have a deep understanding of the cyber landscape and evolving threats. Sixfold changes this by automating the collection and unification of relevant information, streamlining the review process. The platform efficiently ingests both structured and unstructured data from various sources—third-party databases, public information, automated domain scans, cyber questionnaires, and more—delivering the essential insights cyber underwriters need to make informed decisions  such as: 

• NAICS or SIC code classification with industry-leading accuracy level. 
• Operational business overview such as business description, revenue, and location.
• In-depth security insights customized to highlight the data each carrier identifies as critical—whether it's past cyber incidents or key practices like MFA or encryption. By aligning with their underwriting guidelines, these insights ensure recommendations match the carrier’s risk appetite.
• Additional third party insights from proprietary data sources 

Once the data is gathered and processed, the platform surfaces risk appetite-aligned signals and presents them to underwriters via clear, short summarizations (e.g. “This company does not use MFA for employees” or “Company does employ a Chief Information Security Officer.”) along with data sources, down to the exact page number, for underwriters to always know where the information is coming from. Sixfold basically provides every underwriter with their own personal, virtual team of researchers, analysts, and writers who know precisely what info is needed to render a decision quickly. 

Read more: Sixfold partners with Cybercube for unprecedented cyber data access

Sixfold reduced review times by more than 50%, and just as importantly, it allows underwriters to master the always-changing complexities of the cyber risk landscape, so they can confidently make the most reliably informed decisions. 

Empower every underwriter with the latest cyber wisdom

The comparative newness of cyber has, until recently, been a barrier for many underwriters. Traditional lines like P&C and general liability have roots dating back to the 18th century along with well-established guidelines (e.g., property in flood zones costs more to insure), but cyber underwriters have little precedent to rely on (exactly what types of businesses are most vulnerable to phishing?) 

What’s more? Cyber changes fast. Much faster than traditional underwriting infrastructures were designed to accommodate. Home insurers have the comparatively enviable task of adapting to decades-long trends like climate change, but cyber underwriters must contend with sudden, sharp disruptions due to some technological breakthrough that came out of left field—and new technological breakthroughs are always coming out of left field.

It’s asking a lot of underwriters to precisely understand the latest contours of the cyber risk landscape. With Sixfold, underwriters lean on the platform to spotlight the critical information they need so they can make more confident decisions, faster.

New markets deserve new tools

The cyber market is expected to grow from $14.8 billion this year to $90.6 billion next decade, but to build a sustainably profitable business in this fast-moving business, carriers will need a new set of underwriting tools. 

Sixfold’s AI risk-assessment solution gives insurers the advantage they need to grow their cyber GWP and stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace. 

Want to see it in action? ➡️ Join our live product demo this Thursday, November 7th.

Disclaimer: Any references to specific companies throughout this blog post or in any images are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent real data or actual risk assessments

‍This post was originally posted on LinkedIn

October 18, 2024 - Sixfold, the AI solution designed to streamline end-to-end risk assessments for underwriters, announced its partnership with AXIS, a global leader in specialty insurance and reinsurance, a collaboration that has yielded positive results in its initial rollout. Within the first month of deployment, AXIS underwriters leveraged Sixfold’s solution to improve efficiency, accurately classifying businesses and aligning cases with their risk appetite.

“This partnership is all about leveraging AI to empower our underwriters and even further enhance the service we provide to our customers. We were searching for a solution that could reliably deliver precision, and Sixfold has done just that and more.

The real game-changer has been the time savings—freeing up valuable hours so our underwriters can zero in on the work that drives results while ultimately benefiting the customer” said Josh Fishkind, Head of Innovation at AXIS.

“Our goal is to provide meaningful ROI for all our customers, and AXIS has already begun to see these benefits,” said Alex Schmelkin, Sixfold's Founder & CEO. “We look forward to continuing our partnership as AXIS discovers more ways Sixfold can enhance their underwriting processes.”

Read the full customer story here and check out the Insurance Post article covering our work with AXIS.

In 2025, the cyber risk landscape is expected to become more complex with increasing threats driven by rising privacy violations, data breaches, the rise of AI, and external factors such as emerging regulations. According to Munich Re, the cyber insurance market has nearly tripled in size over the past five years, with global premiums projected to surpass $20 billion by 2025, up from nearly $15 billion in 2023, as reported by CyberSecurity Dive.

Reflecting the rapid market growth and emerging threats, Sixfold has seen increased demand from specialty insurers in the cyber sector and has successfully brought on several industry leaders as customers.  "In the near future, cyber policies will become as essential as General Liability or Property & Casualty coverage. Given the world we live in, this shift is inevitable. Cyber policies are poised to become the most specific and highly customized policies available" said Jane Tran, Co-founder & COO at Sixfold.

"In the near future, cyber policies will become as essential as General Liability or Property & Casualty coverage. Given the world we live in, this shift is inevitable. Cyber policies are poised to become the most specific and highly customized policies available"

Empowering Underwriters to Quickly Adapt to New Cyber Risks

As cyber risks grow, the pressure on underwriters to assess risks accurately and expedite the case review process continues to increase. Sixfold’s AI solution for cyber insurance addresses these challenges by securely ingesting each insurer’s underwriting guidelines and aggregating all necessary business information to quickly provide recommendations that align with the carrier’s risk appetite. This capability allows insurers to quickly adjust their risk strategies in response to new cyber threats.

“With Sixfold, insurers can synchronize their underwriting guidelines across the board and adapt quickly. For example, when a new malware threat is identified, you can instantly incorporate it into your risk criteria through Sixfold. This ensures that the entire cyber team factors it into their assessments immediately without needing to learn every detail or the threat or spending hours digging for the right information” said Alex Schmelkin, Founder & CEO of Sixfold.

Besides, effective cyber underwriting demands deep expertise in IT systems, cybersecurity measures, and industry developments. This need for specific expertise presents a significant talent issue for insurers, especially with 50% of the underwriting workforce set to retire by 2028. Sixfold bridges the knowledge gap by instantly providing underwriters with the specialized knowledge they need for accurate risk assessments. 

“Underwriters no longer need to be cyber experts; they can rely on Sixfold to spotlight the critical information needed for accurate underwriting decisions. Our platform simplifies the complex world of cyber risk and empowers underwriters to make more confident decisions, faster” said Jane Tran, Co-founder & COO at Sixfold.

Sixfold Partners with CyberCube to Enhance Cyber Risk Assessments

‍Sixfold has teamed up with CyberCube, the world’s leading analytics provider to quantify cyber risk. This integration of CyberCube's advanced cyber risk analytics with Sixfold's AI underwriting solution enables insurers to achieve faster and more accurate risk assessments. The partnership enhances underwriting efficiency, strengthens regulatory compliance, and offers highly tailored cyber insurance solutions, empowering insurers to stay ahead of the rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape. "The partnership between CyberCube’s comprehensive cyber data and Sixfold’s innovative risk assessment is setting a new standard for the future of underwriting, keeping insurers prepared for new challenges in determining accurate cyber policies.” said Ross Wirth, Head of Partnership and Ecosystem for CyberCube.

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"The partnership between CyberCube’s comprehensive cyber data and Sixfold’s innovative risk assessment is setting a new standard for the future of underwriting, keeping insurers prepared for new challenges in determining accurate cyber policies.”
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To see our Sixfold speeds up the cyber underwriting process join our upcoming live product demo.

This content was originally published on PR Web