The specialist insurer Hiscox has launched a new version of its Security Incident Response (SIR) product, aimed at ‘business integrity risks’ including corruption and fraud. The new SIR policy also includes cover for expenses incurred by a business when dealing with an insured event.
The insurance company says that its SIR – launched in 2017 – supports businesses in the management of security and crisis events from the impact of terrorism, to extortion risks. The addition of ‘business integrity risks’ to the policy is a response to the threat to multi-nationals from risks such as bribery, agent misconduct, contract and procurement fraud, embezzlement, social engineering and money laundering.
Revised wording for SIR now also provides reimbursement for expenses incurred during a crisis; this could include temporary physical security measures or the deployment of staff to an incident location. The cover also includes a new, fourth trigger, which responds on the ‘allegation’ of an insured event having occurred. This the insurer says complements the pre-incident response that SIR provides to clients, enabling them to use the policy to mitigate an incident at its earliest stages, or even to help avoid an insured event altogether. SIR continues to provide clients with exclusive access to the crisis management consultancy Control Risks.
Gareth Bateman, Product Director for SIR, says: “Businesses are dealing with an ever-changing risk and security landscape both at home and abroad. We have recognised the evolution of these threats and have enhanced our successful SIR product to provide cover for 19 additional insured events, with a focus on business integrity risks such as bribery and corruption, embezzlement, and financial statement fraud. The growth in regulatory action against businesses globally reflects the added risks to businesses of experiencing a damaging prosecution related to an incident such as internal bribery – our clients have told us this is an important area of protection for them.
“SIR is about the readiness, response and recovery for organisations when faced with a crisis or complex security issue. The policy ensures peace of mind for senior management that they will have access to the resources – including the services of Control Risks – needed to deal with unforeseen events, and to successfully safeguard their business, employees, and their reputation.”
