Beazley Forms BBR Services, a Dedicated Business Unit to Help Clients Manage Data Breaches Successfully

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Beazley, a leading insurer of network security and privacy risks, has established BBR Services, a new business unit dedicated to helping clients that have suffered a data breach manage the consequences swiftly and effectively.

Data breaches involving the theft or loss of personally identifiable customer information pose a large and growing challenge to businesses large and small.  A thicket of state and federal regulations governs how and when customers must be notified after a breach has occurred, and the risk of reputational damage from a mishandled breach is high.

Since its launch in 2010, Beazley Breach Response (BBR) has become recognised as the most comprehensive solution available to the challenge of data breaches.  BBR brings together expert forensic, legal, notification and credit monitoring services to satisfy all legal requirements and maintain customer confidence.

BBR Services will assume responsibility for the seamless provision of all the response services a BBR policyholder may require following a data breach, building on Beazley's existing expertise and experience gained from helping its clients resolve hundreds of data breaches.  In addition, the new unit will continue to develop Beazley's suite of risk management services, designed to minimize the risk of a data breach occurring.

Katherine Keefe is joining Beazley to head the new unit.  As a partner in the law firm of Dilworth Paxson and chair of the firm's health care group, Ms. Keefe is nationally recognized for her extensive expertise in information privacy and security compliance and in the challenges that healthcare providers in particular confront in managing data breaches. 

Mike Donovan, head of the technology, media and business services team at Beazley which underwrites BBR, said:

"The creation of a dedicated BBR Services team is a logical next step in the evolution of our data breach offering.  The challenge of managing a data breach successfully requires a range of expert services that the affected business will not have in house.  These service providers must collaborate very closely and the task is complicated by the fact that every breach is different.  BBR Services builds on the considerable expertise we have developed to provide all the coordinated services that our clients need to help them resolve these difficult events.

"I am delighted that we have been able to attract an individual of Katherine Keefe's caliber to head this important initiative.  Katherine brings rich experience of the sector of the US economy that is perhaps most at risk from data breaches involving personally identifiable information, including both financial and health records.  Her experience and management skills will be relevant and valuable to all our clients." 

Katherine Keefe said:  "Beazley has established itself as a leader in the market for data breach solutions by thinking beyond the traditional constraints of insurance products.  Unlike typical insurer responses, we directly provide practical and intelligent solutions to prevent and respond to data breaches.  I have every confidence that BBR Services will rapidly be recognized as the center of excellence in the provision of this expertise."

Note to editors:

Beazley plc (BEZ.L), is the parent company of specialist insurance businesses with operations in Europe, the US, Asia and Australia.  Beazley manages five Lloyd's syndicates and, in 2011, underwrote gross premiums worldwide of $1,712.5 million.  All Lloyd's syndicates are rated A by A.M. Best. 

Beazley's underwriters in the United States focus on writing a range of specialist insurance products.  In the admitted market, coverage is provided by Beazley Insurance Company, Inc., an A.M. Best A rated carrier licensed in all 50 states.  In the surplus lines market, coverage is provided by the Beazley syndicates at Lloyd's.

Beazley is a market leader in many of its chosen lines, which include professional indemnity, property, marine, reinsurance, accident and life, and political risks and contingency business.

For more information please go to: www.beazley.com

For updated security breach notification laws visit http://www.beazley.com/databreachmap

SOURCE Beazley plc