Moody’s, BitSight Team On Cybersecurity Risk Platform

Moody’s Corporation and BitSight announced a collaborative effort aimed at helping the companies’ customers identify and quantify cybersecurity risk and potential for financial exposure, according to a Monday (Sept. 13) press release.

As part of the joint effort, Moody’s will invest $250 million in BitSight, a cybersecurity ratings platform. In turn, BitSight will purchase VisibleRisk, a cyber risk quantification platform. Together, the companies “will enable organizations around the world to quantify cyber risk and increase their cyber resilience,” according to the VisibleRisk website.

The acquisition of VisibleRisk drives BitSight’s valuation to $2.4 billion. BitSight provides its cyber risk services to more than 2,300 global customers, including Fortune 500 companies, the government sector, insurers and asset managers, according to the press release.

A Moody’s Investors Service review of cyber susceptibility and ramifications found 13 sectors with high or medium-high cybersecurity risk with total debt surpassing $20 trillion, per the release.

Online hacking is growing at a fever pitch. In the first half year of 2021, global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky detected 1.5 billion cyber attacks on various devices, from connected appliances, smartwatches, voice assistants and more. The company found that there were twice as many cyber attacks as compared to the first six months of 2020.

Read more: Kaspersky Detects 1.5B IoT Cyberattacks This Year

Moody’s estimates the surge in cyberattacks and ransomware has cost companies hundreds of billions of dollars since the pandemic began in March 2020. As part of the collaboration, Moody’s will implement BitSight’s cyber risk data and research across its suite of risk assessment products.

In addition to bolstering its cybersecurity risk assessments, Moody’s has made strides to improve its natural disaster risk modeling with the recent acquisition of Risk Management Solutions Inc. for $2 billion, according to PYMNTS. That acquisition positions Moody’s to increase its insurance data and analytics business to nearly $500 million in revenue and driving the development of its global risk capabilities.

Related: Moody’s To Buy RMS For Climate, Natural Disaster Risk Modeling