MGU for Hartford Steam Boiler handles cyber risk differently

At-Bay, a startup managing general underwriter for Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Co. that focuses on analyzing and preventing cyber risk, began operations Thursday.

The Mountain View, California-based firm will underwrite stand-alone surplus lines policies offering coverage of up to $10 million, said founder and CEO Rotem Iram.

The concept behind the operation is that cyber risk is dynamic and relying on historical data limits cyber coverage’s effectiveness, said Mr. Iram.

At-Bay is moving away from using actuarial tables to working with security experts who will price coverage based on future expected risk, as well as “continuously assessing risk for every company in our portfolio,” Mr. Iram said.

It will check companies’ systems “from the outside in” and offer ways for firms to protect themselves. “Our belief is if we can help companies avoid losses altogether, it creates value for us we can then return and give back to companies in the form of better pricing and coverage,” he said.

At-Bay “came with a little bit different value proposition for us” that “aligns very well with our own core philosophy” in managing risk, HSB Senior Vice President Dave Mercier said.

He said Hartford, Connecticut-based HSB, which is a unit of Munich Reinsurance Co., expects to bind a few At-Bay policies this year “and see how it ramps up next year.”

At-Bay, which has six employees in Mountain View and nine working out of a research and development center in Tel Aviv, Israel, is financed with $6 million in venture capital from Menlo Park, California-based LightSpeed Venture Partners and others.