(Image source: Arceo.ai  homepage.)

Arceo.ai (San Francisco) announced its launch today, characterizing its debut as the emergence of the industry-first provider of cyber resilience solutions. The company provides what it calls a unique platform that enables insurance carriers to automate and enhance their cyber insurance solutions, while increasing the security of their insureds.

Arceo describes cyber resilience as the combination of risk mitigation and accelerated recovery to reduce the total impact of a cyber incident. Whereas cybersecurity stops or limits the scope of an attack, cyber insurance addresses financial loss and recovery costs, according to the company’s debut announcement. “Bridging the insurance and cybersecurity worlds is a critical aspect of enabling the cyber insurance market to grow,” the announcement says.

Arceo reports that it enables insurance carriers to handle cyber insurance policy quoting at scale and serve small-and-medium-size enterprises (SMEs), the fastest growing cyber insurance segment which represents 90 percent of new buyers according to an Advisen survey. Arceo says its own research demonstrates that cyber incidents impact SMEs severely with a financial loss averaging 3.4 percent of revenue versus 0.05 percent for the overall market. Arceo says its platform scales SME policy management with a transparent modeling process that enhances underwriting, accelerates quoting, and provides insureds with actionable technical cyber resilience guidance.

“Cyber incidents are one of the most important risks facing businesses,” comments Raj Shah, CEO, Arceo.ai. “For the insurance industry, this represents a significant, but challenging opportunity for growth. Our combined team of security and insurance practitioners has enabled us to build a platform for the insurance industry to create and deliver meaningful cyber resilience solutions for their customers.”

To pursue the emerging market for cyber resilience solutions, Arceo reports that it assembled a team of data scientists, cybersecurity engineers and insurance experts, as well as experienced advisors. The company lists its founding team as follows.

• CEO, Raj Shah, was most recently managing partner of the Pentagon Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) in Silicon Valley. Prior to DIUx, Raj was CEO of Morta Security, a startup acquired by Palo Alto Networks. He began his career as an F-16 pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
  

  Vishaal “V8” Hariprasad, President, and CTO, Arceo.ai.

• President, and CTO, Vishaal “V8” Hariprasad previously stood up the Cyber Threat Alliance at Palo Alto Networks after the acquisition of Morta Security where he was a co-founder. V8 served as a Cyber Operations Officer in the U.S. Air Force and the NSA with multiple overseas deployments and is a graduate of the Air Force Academy.
• Ben Beeson, a widely respected thought leader in the cyber insurance market, also joined the Arceo team as a founding member and Head of Sales. Prior to Arceo, Ben was leading Lockton’s cyber risk practice. He brings 20 years of experience in the insurance industry to the team.
• Davis Hake is responsible for Customer Engagement and Marketing at Arceo. Davis most recently was Director of Cybersecurity Strategy at Palo Alto Networks and held positions in the Federal Government, including the National Security Council of the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. House of Representatives.
  

  Davis Hake, Co-Founder, Engagement, Arceo.ai

• Matthew Hall leads sales engineering, providing innovative solutions to Arceo customers. Matthew has deep experience in enterprise security and was on the founding team at Morta Security.

Arceo’s Advisory Board

Arceo also announced that it is expanding its Advisory Board to include Gary Harbison, Sir Iain Lobban, Hemant H. Shah, Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, and Mario P. Vitale, who together bring a wealth of expertise from both the cybersecurity and insurance worlds:

• Gary Harbison, currently the Global Chief Information Security Officer of Bayer, is a proven security leader with over 19 years of experience in the Information Security domain including roles at multiple global fortune 500 companies, as well as public sector experience with the US Department of Defense. Gary has a track record of developing security and risk management programs built to evolve with changing business needs and evolving threats.

“The level of sophistication of evolving cyberattacks facing companies today continues to be a challenge for much of the private sector,” comments Harbison. “Arceo’s new model of cyber resilience is an exciting way to address cyber risk holistically while sharing learnings from cyber risk investment and analytics across a range of companies.”

• Sir Iain Lobban is the former director of the U.K.’s largest intelligence and security agency, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). The last ten years of his career were characterized by the integration of intelligence and security in counter-terrorism operations, cyber defense, and support to the military campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

“The role of intelligence is to reduce the gap between ignorance and knowledge: analytics make all the difference,” comments Sir Iain. “Arceo’s strategy of bringing data science to bear on the worlds of cyber risk mitigation and cyber risk transfer can be a game-changer in building real cyber resilience for businesses and our critical infrastructure.”

• Hemant H. Shah co-founded Risk Management Solutions, Inc. and served as its CEO until March 2018. Mr. Shah is currently the co-Founder and CEO of Archipelago Analytics, Inc. He has been instrumental in the insurance industry’s adoption of data and science-driven modeling, from underwriting through capital management, and has advised hundreds of insurers, reinsurers, and financial institutions throughout the global market.

“The risks that truly matter are increasingly tied to the digital assets, networks, and inter-connected systems that define our modern economy,” commented Shah. “At the heart of Arceo’s strategy are solutions that make cyber-related insurance coverage more relevant, accessible and vital, enabling the growth of the market and more resiliency for all.”

• Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall has served in multiple senior U.S. national security roles at the White House, the Pentagon and, most recently, as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Energy, where she spearheaded a major initiative with North American utility leaders to tackle emerging cyber and physical challenges to the American power grid. She is currently a Distinguished Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

“Cyber threats are on the rise, and U.S. critical infrastructure is in the sight lines of our adversaries. We need to build a national ecosystem that rallies the full strengths of our nation to tackle this growing challenge,” Sherwood-Randall says. “Arceo is pioneering a model that will meet escalating needs across multiple sectors of the economy. I look forward to working with Raj, V8 and their experienced team to develop a full suite of options for customers who seek to raise their cybersecurity and acquire insurance against cyber risks.”

• 

  Mario P. Vitale, CEO, Vitality Risk.

  Mario P. Vitale is the CEO of Vitality Risk providing consulting services to the insurance industry and private equity investors. Prior to this role he served as the CEO of Aspen Insurance, a leading specialty insurer, the CEO of Zurich Insurance Group’s Global Corporate business in North America and was CEO of Willis Towers Watson. Currently, he serves as Director of WNS Holdings, on the Board of Directors at Broad Street Partners, and as a member of the Board of Trustees at St. John’s University.

“Having built insurance companies from the ground up, I believe the insurance industry is at its best when it embraces technology to meet evolving market needs,” comments Vitale. “The cyber insurance market is only just beginning to understand its potential and I’m excited about Arceo’s unique position to not just enhance underwriting of risk, but also deliver value back to the insureds.”

Arceo reports that it will present its innovative solution at the Advisen Cyber Risk Insights Conference taking place in San Francisco on February 20-21 where President and CTO Vishaal Hariprasad will be providing the keynote with Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall.

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