PHP Incident: A Global Cyber Security Threat?

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2 Min Read

Tom Peacock

Vice President, Cyber

tpeacock@aglondon.com

 

You may have seen the recent news surrounding critical vulnerabilities identified in PHP, a technology used by almost 70% of websites.[w3techs.com]

PHP is widely used to power websites and applications by processing data and interacting with databases. The vulnerabilities disclosed could, under certain conditions, allow an attacker to remotely execute code without authentication, creating the potential for system compromise and wider malicious activity. [ncsc.gov.uk]

What Should Organisations Be Doing?

✅ Identify where PHP is being used, particularly across internet-facing systems.
✅ Patch affected environments as a priority.
✅ Assess third-party suppliers and applications that may rely on PHP.
✅ Mitigate or isolate vulnerable systems where immediate patching is not possible.

Where Does Cyber Insurance Come In?

A cyber policy will typically require an insured event, such as a security failure or system failure, to trigger coverage.

At this stage, this is primarily a vulnerability management issue rather than an insured loss event. Many organisations will patch successfully and experience no compromise at all.

Some organisations may consider taking affected systems offline while patches are implemented and tested. Depending on the specific circumstances, policy wording and insurer position, this action may have insurance implications, including under voluntary shutdown provisions where such coverage exists. However, organisations should not assume cover applies automatically and should engage with their broker or insurer wherever practicable before making decisions.

Beyond indemnification, many cyber insurers now provide access to incident response teams, threat intelligence and specialist cyber-security expertise, helping insureds assess and respond to emerging threats before they become claims.

What Does This Mean for the Cyber Insurance Market?

Events like this highlight a key challenge for cyber insurers: a vulnerability in a widely deployed technology can create correlated exposure across thousands of organisations at the same time.

It also reinforces the importance of effective patch management. As underwriters continue to focus on cyber hygiene, vulnerabilities like this will only increase scrutiny around how organisations identify, prioritise and remediate critical patches.

The next systemic cyber event may not start with ransomware. It may start with a single vulnerability embedded in technology relied upon by thousands of organisations worldwide. The organisations that respond quickest are often the ones that avoid becoming tomorrow’s claims notification.

As this situation continues to develop, organisations should ensure they understand both the technical and insurance implications. If you’d like to discuss what this could mean for your business or your clients, please get in touch with myself and the AG London team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What You Need to Know About Financial Institutions Insurance in 2026

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By Rebecca Harvey, AG London

4 Minute Read

Part 1 of a 5-Part ProFin Series

Ask most people to picture a financial institution and what springs to mind is a bank, a venture capital firm, or an investment fund.  They aren’t wrong, however, it is just a fraction of the story. A financial institution is any organization that moves money for a living: deposits, loans, investments, or the countless services built on top of them. That definition now stretches from century-old asset managers to venture capital firms, FinTech platforms with no physical branch, and funds that invest entirely in crypto. And the insurance that protects all of them is going through one of its most interesting stretches in years.

Rebecca Harvey, Executive Vice President and Head of ProFin at AG London, sits at the center of that shift. In this first installment of our five-part ProFin series, she walks us through what financial institutions coverage actually protects, why London has quietly become the market to watch, and how a single endorsement is reshaping the way the industry thinks about AI.

Where Financial Institutions Fit Inside ProFin

Financial institutions liability is one of its core verticals within the ProFin division at AG London: a dedicated line of protection for any financial institution. 

That protection is rarely a single line of coverage. It is a stack of coverages that work together. Directors and officers liability provides the board-level protection. Errors and omissions, known outside North America as professional indemnity, covers the institution itself for any mistake it might make, from a trade error to advice on how a fund is valued. Employment practices liability handles claims that arise from wrongful dismissal and fiduciary liability protects against problems with the management of assets (trust, pension, employee benefit plan) . A newer addition to the market is crime and cyber can be bolted on to build an all singing, all dancing policy.

The London Market Today: Stable, Competitive, and Evolving

Different to the commercial market, which can swing hard and react on instinct, financial institutions tend to move at a glacial pace in comparison. “It is a stable market,” Rebecca notes. Rates drift up or down by a few points rather than lurching. That stability is a feature, not a limitation and is driven by the regulation financial institutions embody at the core of their business.

What has changed is the energy underneath it. A wave of new entrants within London has come into the space, and many of them are focused on FinTech platforms , crypto-exposed funds, and blockchain exposure, eager to innovate. The result is competitive pricing and coverage that sits at a high-water mark: broad and constantly evolving  

The through-line is that many of the risks arriving in London now carry AI exposure, so the coverage has to keep evolving. That, Rebecca points out, is exactly what keeps London relevant.

What Belongs in London

Not every risk needs to cross the Atlantic, and Rebecca is candid about that. Run-of-the-mill asset managers and banks usually stay in the domestic market, where they are competitively priced and every carrier wants to write them.

Where London earns its reputation is on the risks that make other insurers hesitate: VC firms, FinTech, funds that invest in crypto. The crypto space in particular has seen real turmoil, and the collapse of FTX left a mark. But many of these funds are heavily regulated, with solid governance behind them, and when a policy is underwritten properly they genuinely belong in the London market. The catch, as Rebecca puts it, is awareness: unless the conversation happens, a risk that would thrive in London often stays put in the domestic market by default.

For agents, that is the opening. A financial institution risk sitting with an American market today may be a much better fit in London than anyone realizes.

What Makes a Great Broker-Partner Relationship

Ask Rebecca what she looks for in a partnership and the answer starts in one place. “Communication is key. Without it, everything falls apart.”

From there, the philosophy is about posture. AG London works as an extension of the retail partner rather than a separate party inserting itself into the deal. When the team brings a risk to underwriters, they lead with the producer behind it, which lets insurers build real rapport over time: this agent again, our second deal together, someone we know.

That approach runs on what the ProFin division calls its three C’s: communication, client first, and consistency. By client, the team means the retail partner. It is backed by concrete service standards. Submissions get a response within 24 to 48 hours, a deadline set with the time difference in mind, and the team pushes its own insurers to turn work around quickly because they want to win the business too. The goal, in Rebecca’s words, is to leave no reason not to use London.

A First Look at What’s Coming

AG London is in the process of launching its own financial institution crime form. Without getting ahead of the launch, the shape of it speaks to where the market is heading: full-limit social engineering coverage, often sub-limited in the domestic market, plus specific digital asset coverage built for an evolving landscape, broad extensions, and very few exclusions. The unique pieces, Rebecca notes with a smile, will have to wait until it is live.

This is the first article in a five-part ProFin series. In the next installment, we take a much closer look at the coverage that sits at the heart of nearly every financial institutions program: Directors and Officers liability, what it protects, and why it is rarely as simple as it sounds.

Financial Institutions We Serve

  • Banks
  • Asset Managers
  • Funds
  • Venture Capital Firms
  • FinTech Platforms
  • Online / Digital Banks
  • Crypto-Exposed Funds
  • Mortgage Brokers
  • Insurance Companies

For a full overview of AG London’s Financial Institution capabilities, please click here.

If you have a risk you’d like to talk through, reach out directly. That’s what we’re here for.

What You Need to Know About Cargo Insurance in 2026

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By Natasha Ross & Matthew Skedge, AG London

10 Minute Read

Ask most people what cargo insurance covers and they’ll picture a container ship on the open ocean. That image isn’t wrong; it’s just wildly incomplete. Cargo insurance travels with goods from the moment they leave a factory floor to the moment they land on a retail shelf; touching trucks, planes, ports, warehouses, and everywhere in between. And right now, the cargo market is going through one of the more interesting chapters in recent memory.

Natasha Ross, Senior Vice President of AG London, and Matthew Skedge, Senior Vice President of the Cargo & Stock Throughput Division at AG London, are both cargo specialists at AG London. They walk us through the fundamentals of the coverage, what’s happening in the London market today, and why a pallet of AirPods keeps underwriters up at night.

Cargo Isn’t Just About Ships

The term “marine cargo” has a historical explanation that doesn’t quite fit modern reality. Cargo insurance has lived within the marine market for centuries because goods were historically moved almost exclusively by sea. Today, marine is actually an umbrella for several distinct lines: Hull Insurance covers the physical vessel, Protection and Indemnity (P&I) covers third-party liabilities and pollution risk, and cargo covers the goods themselves.

“In reality, cargo is probably closer affiliated to property insurance than it is to other marine lines,” Natasha explains. “The people buying cargo coverage are often the same people who own the warehouse where those goods are stored. We have much more crossover with the property market than we do with the vessel owners.”

Coverage follows the goods through their entire journey: what Natasha calls “cradle to grave.” That means a manufacturing facility in one country, distribution by truck to a port or airport, ocean or air transit, arrival at a warehouse or distribution center in another country, and potentially the final exposure at a retail location. Stock throughput policies can cover the full chain in a single placement.

AG London also writes more unique lines like freight liability and warehouse legal liability alongside traditional physical loss or damage on cargo. These coverage types have seen growing demand as the capacity market has widened its appetite.

What’s Moving Through the Market Right Now

The short answer: everything. Hair brushes, food and beverage, agricultural commodities, industrial equipment, components for large construction projects. But a few trends are reshaping conversations between brokers and underwriters in ways that weren’t true even five years ago.

Data centers are at the top of that list. “We are seeing a lot of data centers and servers and tech. They are risks that underwriters are still learning about,” says Natasha. “What happens to them in a fire? What about overheating? They are treading that ground carefully, and more underwriters are entering the space, but with caution, because it’s new.”

A second trend is subtler but arguably just as significant: technology is getting smaller and more valuable at the same time. A truck full of traditional cargo has a relatively predictable loss profile. A truck loaded with pallets of AirPods, Oura rings, or similar high-value compact tech? One stolen pallet can easily generate a six-figure loss. The concentration of value in a very small physical footprint is creating exposures that didn’t exist a decade ago and that underwriters are still calibrating.

Before tech became the talking point, electric vehicle batteries occupied that same space. It was a relatively new category of cargo with significant uncertainty around the key perils (fire risk, in particular) that underwriters had to work through before getting comfortable. Each new technology wave brings a version of the same challenge: identifying the unique risks of each.

The London Market Today: Soft, Competitive, and Expanding

The cargo market in London is currently in a soft cycle, meaning buyers are in a favorable position. Rates have been declining, and new capacity has poured into the market. That competition is producing two visible effects: underwriters are widening their coverage terms, and they’re expanding the types of risks and cargo categories they’re willing to write.

“As the cargo market is generally doing quite well, they are under increased pressure to bring in more revenue,” Natasha notes. “When they hear that there are suddenly loads of data centers being built and needing coverage, they are thinking: ‘we need to find a solution for this and be among the first to offer it.’”

AG London has access to over 40 cargo and stock throughput markets in London. Our role and our value lies in knowing which of those markets has genuine appetite for a given risk. The underwriter who is comfortable with data center exposure may not be the same underwriter who is the right home for a fresh produce account. That market knowledge is what turns a submission into a placement.

How Lloyd’s Works (and Why It Matters)

Lloyd’s of London isn’t an insurance company; it’s a marketplace made up of syndicates. Those syndicates are backed by insurance companies you’d recognize: carriers like The Hartford, Axis, and Beazley all operate Lloyd’s syndicates. The underwriters writing business in that marketplace are doing so on behalf of their companies, but within the Lloyd’s structure.

What sets Lloyd’s apart is the security structure behind it. Each year, syndicates contribute to a central fund. This fund is a backstop that ensures claims are paid even if a syndicate faces financial difficulty. The result is that insureds placing business in the London market have a layer of protection that goes beyond the individual carrier. Syndicates are also subject to dual scrutiny: their own company’s internal oversight and Lloyd’s review of their underwriting practices.

It’s a system that’s been stress-tested for over three centuries, which is perhaps the most straightforward argument for its credibility.

What Makes a Great Broker-Partner Relationship

When asked what they look for in the agencies and brokers they work with, Natasha and Matthew’s answer is direct: honesty, communication, and a shared sense of purpose around getting the right outcome for the client.

“We try to be upfront with our clients. If it’s not something we can do, or we don’t think we’re going to be able to offer the best terms, we’ll say your best place is the domestic market on this. We expect that to go both ways,” explains Matthew.

The Bottom Line

Cargo insurance is one of those lines that looks straightforward until you’re actually in it. The goods being moved around the world are more varied, more valuable, and more complex than ever. The risks emerging from new technology categories are still being defined in real time. And the London market with its unique structure, deep capacity, and centuries of precedent remains one of the best places in the world to find creative solutions for hard-to-place risks.

Our Products Offered:

  • Stock Throughput​
  • Transit-only (Domestic and/or International)​
  • Stock-only (Storage)​
  • Top-up / Excess Towers​
  • Project Cargo / Delay In Start-Up (DSU)​
  • Shipper’s Interest​
  • Warehouse Legal Liability​
  • Freight Liability​
  • Trade Disruption Insurance​
  • Cash In Transit / General Specie / Fine Art / Jeweler’s Block​
  • Contractors Equipment / Oil Field Equipment Floaters​
  • Complimentary Terror / Political Violence Products via In-House Vehicle​
  • Product Recall​

Our Key Industries Served:

  • Food and Beverage Manufacturers and Distributors (including Chilled/Frozen)​
  • Apparel​
  • Pharmaceuticals / Life Sciences​
  • Manufacturers​
  • Wholesalers​
  • Technology​
  • Wineries, Distilleries, and Breweries​
  • Logistics Providers​
  • Importers/Distributors​
  • Forestry Products​
  • Equipment and Machinery​
  • Vehicle Manufacturers and Franchises

For a full overview of AG London’s cargo product capabilities, please click here.

If you have a risk you’d like to talk through, reach out directly. That’s what we’re here for.