Aon P.L.C.’s professional risk solutions team saw the need for cyber coverage beyond the health care, financial institutions and retail sectors that have suffered from data breaches, according to Christian Hoffman, the brokerage’s New York-based professional risk solutions practice leader.

Senior management and boards of directors for manufacturers, transportation firms and other industries recognized they had a cyber issue but didn’t “see a fit with the current coverage in the marketplace,” said Mr. Hoffman.

There was a need for coverage for business interruption, property damage, bodily injury, products liability and environmental risk “all as it relates to cyber,” he said.

Ramping up the need for this coverage were the events of the summer of 2017, including the WannaCry and NotPetya viruses, he said. Companies were hurt by the business interruption and extra expense issues and had to disclose these major cyber events’ effects on their earnings calls and in their U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Mr. Hoffman said.

The result of this was the development by Aon’s 60-person professional risk solutions team, which is based in the United States, London and Bermuda, of Aon Cyber Enterprise Solutions, which provides program capacity of $500 million provided by 70 insurers and reinsurers.

“We keep working with the marketplace to extend that further” and provide even greater capacity, said Mr. Hoffman.

Mr. Hoffman said the program has three components: education around the product with respect to enterprise risk; claims related to the WannaCry and NotPetya viruses; and the change and evolution in the more traditional property/casualty market and clients’ need “to have clarity and consistency around a cyber insurance product.”

Aon was voted Brokerage Team of the Year (firms with more than $500 million in revenue) at the U.S. Insurance Awards.

“What is of peak interest” is the business interruption component as well as supply chain and contingent business interruption coverage, Mr. Hoffman said.

Finalists:

• Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
• Marsh L.L.C. (two teams) • Willis Towers Watson P.L.C.

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