In a move that reflects the growing urgency for companies, organizations and institutions worldwide to proactively face down and mitigate cybercrime, Beazley, a longtime cyber insurance market leader, announced recently that it has combined its cyber and executive risk departments into a single division. "The stakes are very high," Beazley's new Cyber & Executive Risk Division Head Mike Donovan said in a press release. "We're protecting critical assets — our clients' data, their operations, their senior executives, and their corporate reputations." Donovan acknowledged the organic and multidimensional nature of cyber risk as well as the power that a single successful cyberattack has to completely shutter business operations. "A class action lawsuit against a company's directors can be comparably damaging," Donavan said. "And the acceleration and amplification of bad news through social media means that reputational damage can be inflicted faster and with greater effect." The carrier says its executive risk team currently insures more than 35% of the Fortune 500 and more than half of the companies comprising the Dow Jones Technology Index. The new division, which includes an in-house cyber incident response team, plans to capitalize on the company's accumulated expertise in executive risk, including directors' & officers' (D&O) insurance and employment practices liability (EPL). This move builds on Beazley's goal of combining services and policies to provide clients with innovative coverage options. The bullet points outlined in the slideshow above highlight some of the reasons why cyber coverage necessities such an approach. See also: Top 10 financial & professional lines risks in 2019