Hedge funds can spend years crafting a trading algorithm or a strategy to keep ahead of competitors. A Stone Point Capital-backed insurance broker is offering to help protect those trade secrets, and their fees, from a cyber attack.
Alliant Insurance Services Inc. announced coverage and services that help hedge funds evaluate readiness for an attack. An insurance policy from Everest Re Group Ltd. to cover lost fee income from a hack is part of the package, Alliant said Thursday in a statement. BlueVoyant, a cyber-security company run by former Morgan Stanley executive Jim Rosenthal, and law firm Bohrer PLLC are also partners in the effort.
The worldwide WannaCry attack and the breach at Equifax Inc., both last year, helped focus the attention of companies and insurers on cyber crime. Cyber insurance premiums in the U.S. increased 37 percent to $1.84 billion in 2017 compared from a year earlier, according to a report from Aon Plc. Insurers from Zurich Insurance Group AG to American International Group Inc. have introduced coverage.
“The hedge fund industry is extremely competitive, there is a tremendous amount of confidentiality,” Ron Borys, managing director at Alliant’s Crystal Financial Institutions, said in an interview. “Every fund manager is using a network in some way, shape or form to communicate or house information, therefore anybody is vulnerable.”
Borys’s business works with more 250 hedge funds to help them find insurance. Alliant, backed by Stone Point, agreed in April to buy New York-based Crystal as it expands services. Crystal worked with MetLife Inc. last year to offer disability coverage for higher-paid workers at firms such as hedge funds.