Equifax data breach to cost insurers $125 million: Property Claim Services

REUTERS - Property Claim Services (PCS), a Verisk Analytics company, estimated an insured loss of $125 million from a massive data breach disclosed last month by Equifax Inc, that has plunged the credit-monitoring company into crisis.

Equifax, a provider of consumer credit scores, said last month that personal details of as many as 143 million U.S. consumers were accessed by hackers between mid-May and July.

PCS also said in an email statement on Monday that economic losses of the cyber attack, among the largest ever recorded, were expected to be larger than the insured losses.

Policy conditions are reviewed prior to finalising the settlement, PCS said, adding that these coverage issues that are yet be resolved may reduce the likelihood of the loss reaching the estimated figure.

According to sources and analysts, Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley leads the cyber policy for the breach.

Beazley declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Carolyn Cohn)