Lloyd’s finishes cyber threat investigation and starts restoring online systems

As a result, Lloyd’s has started restoring external connectivity with the marketplace, having temporarily shut it down last Wednesday.

Lloyd’s expects to have all systems fully operational by this Wednesday.

A Lloyd’s spokesperson said: “Last week, unusual activity was detected on the Lloyd’s network. As a result, the proactive decision was made to take some systems offline and perform a cyber security investigation.

“This was led by a dedicated team and two specialist partners, Mandiant and NTT.

“The investigation has concluded that no evidence of any compromise was found and as such Lloyd’s has been advised that its network services can now be restored.

“We continue to work with our partners to monitor the IT environment as we restore services to the market, which we currently anticipate to complete by Wednesday 12 October.”

Connectivity

Restoring systems will bring to an end a period in which external companies have been without online access to Lloyd’s.

The cyber drama began on 5 October when Lloyd’s took swift action to safeguard its online security by resetting its systems and switching off all external connectivity, including its delegated authority platforms, after discovering the “unusual activity” on its network.

As reported by Insurance Age earlier today, Lloyd’s subsequently released a statement saying online systems remained off.

The organisation had updated that the investigation was at an advanced stage, and having worked with a team IT experts, systems remained off as a “precautionary measure”.

Widespread

Although the threat has now been deemed over, Lloyd’s joins a growing list of insurance companies to suffer cyber-related problems.

A Freedom of Information request to the Financial Conduct Authority from Insurance Age revealed last month that the number of cyber breaches reported by insurance intermediaries rose from 12 in the financial year of 2020/21 to 15 in 2021/22.

The upside for the insurance industry is that cyber is becoming such a widespread threat, products are likely to become ubiquitous.

According to a report released last week from Global Insurance Law Connect, an alliance of law firms, cyber will become as widespread as public liability or professional indemnity. The report took insights from 19 countries.

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