Why Aon Is Buying Cytelligence

By Dan Anderson ● Feb 11, 2020
  • Risk management, insurance brokerage, reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing services Aon recently announced that it is buying Cytelligence

Risk management, insurance brokerage, reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing services Aon recently announced that it is buying Cytelligence, which is a leading international cybersecurity firm with deep expertise in cyber incident response and digital forensic investigations.

With 50,000 employees worldwide, Aon unites to empower results for clients in over 120 countries via innovative risk and people solutions. And this acquisition combines Aon’s industry-leading investment in cybersecurity with Cytelligence’s technical expertise in incident response and digital forensics services to strengthen Aon’s cybersecurity client value proposition.

This acquisition will help Aon expand its current coverages within the cyber market at a time when cyber claims are almost doubling year-over-year. And the 2019 Cybersecurity Almanac published by Cisco and Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that cyber events will cost $6 trillion annually by 2021 as companies are digitizing most of their processes and are often operating remotely.

The global cyber insurance premiums are expected to grow from $4 billion in 2018 to $20 billion by 2025. And according to Aon’s 2019 Global Risk Management Survey, cyber-attacks were identified as a top ten risk facing organizations and is predicted to be one of the top three risks for organizations in 2022.

“As the number of network intrusions, data breaches, ransomware attacks, and similar threats continues to increase in both frequency and severity, expertise in cyber incident response becomes critical to organizations and insurance companies,” said Jason Hogg, CEO of Aon Cyber Solutions & Professor of Cornell University. “The Cytelligence team are deep experts in cyber incident response, ransomware mitigation, and cyber security training for employees, which will help cement our position in both North America and globally as an industry leader.”

Cytelligence is going to join the growing portfolio of Aon’s Cyber Solutions, which combines digital risk management services, security services, professional risk solutions, and a global risk consulting practice. And this acquisition enhances Aon’s 2016 acquisition of Stroz Friedberg and now allows Aon’s Cyber Solutions to offer an even more holistic portfolio of services to clients from proactive security services, to incident response, to risk quantification and insurance broking.

“Together, we will deliver complete proactive solutions from risk assessment, cyber risk policy underwriting to secure insurance coverage to protect critical assets, to cyber breach response, effective and efficient cyber incident remediation, meticulous data collection and data preservation,” explained Daniel Tobok, CEO of Cytelligence Inc. “Put simply, everything that is connected to the internet can be compromised. proactive companies and their Boards are preparing now with proactive actions with penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, security audits, and training of their employees.”

Tobok is joining Aon as the Canadian President of Aon’s Cyber Solutions.