From the Ukraine conflict to the escalating tensions surrounding the Taiwan Strait, the shifting geopolitical landscape has significantly impacted the marine insurance market. The changing nature of maritime war risk underscores the importance of technology in helping to mitigate maritime exposures.

Working with its marine sector clients, including global top three brokerage Willis Towers Watson, and other partners such as Ambrey Security, Insurwave has developed a unique offering tailored to the marine war market.

The Insurwave platform maintains a single view of risk for dynamic exposures, connecting policy risk data to a digital twin of the risk. Through an on-platform ledger, real-time voyage information is maintained as vessels travel through JWC Listed Areas and other high-risk zones, providing real-time alerts, and automating premium adjustments, as the exposures change. Insurwave also offers real-time threat intelligence insights, through partnering with trusted experts. The combination of real-time dynamic exposure management, with the ability for shipowners and ship managers to run real-time operational risk mitigation, is critical to managing marine war risks.

The story in numbers:

• 3 million vessel positions reported annually on the Insurwave platform, increasing data transparency and visibility of exposures.
• 3,000 automated voyage notifications reported annually on the Insurwave platform that would otherwise be reported manually to process the risk.
• Ambrey logged in excess of 4,500 maritime security events in 2024 since releasing Insurwave's vessel spoofing solution. Willis has seen an 80% reduction in vessel signal jamming-related disruptions, with only two incidents captured.

The Challenge

Shipping clients buying war insurance are now faced with new and heightened risks that can be difficult to mitigate without a real-time view of exposures. Today, maritime threats are perpetrated by highly organised groups, some with direct links to geopolitical conflicts. These bad actors are equipped with advanced technology to engage in cyberattacks such as GNSS spoofing and signal jamming.

Signal jamming is a sophisticated cyberattack that falsifies a vessel’s GPS location, leading to inaccurate position reports and heightened risks of piracy, collisions, or regulatory violations. These bad actors also have access to arsenal, including including missiles, drones and other advanced weaponry, which combined with ability to perpetrate technology cyber threats, means their ability to target commercial vessels with precision are becoming more sophisticated. This has heightened the risks that commercial shipowners and managers face, including increased risk to seafarers' lives.

The increasing number of attacks, combined with the growing sophistication of the actors involved, has prompted insurers, brokers and shipping companies to reassess their exposure to maritime war risks. In response, they are relying more on technology to provide real-time monitoring, threat intelligence, and analytics to help mitigate these rapidly evolving threats. Forward thinking brokers advising their maritime clients are uniquely positioned to offer value-add services, where technology plays a key role.

The Solution

By using the Insurwave platform, brokers such as Willis and their shipping clients are able to maintain a digital record of all their war risks, including real-time tracking of voyages undertaken during a policy year, with in-built analytics that power real-time insights of where vessels may be at risk. Insurwave provides automatic notification issuance (upon War zone entry/voyage completion), alleviating manual burden of voyage notification on assureds, and enabling Willis to spend more of their time on other value-adding activities.

The Insurwave platform is designed to address the complexities of maritime threats in real-time through dynamic exposure monitoring in five key areas:

1. Cost Efficiency: The Insurwave platform drives operational efficiency saving shipowners and ship managers from having to manually declare war voyages and monitor voyages through cumbersome manual processes.
2. Voyage Analytics: The platform provides voyage and premium insights, enabling brokers to advise their maritime clients on forecast future behaviour based on insights from historical patterns. This allows their clients to proactively mitigate risks through route adjustments and additional security measures.
3. Dynamic Exposure Monitoring: Unlike traditional solutions based on static data, Insurwave’s platform continuously updates, ensuring that brokers and their clients are always using the most up-to-date and relevant information when making critical decisions.
4. Real-Time Threat Intelligence Alerts: With the support of Ambrey’s intelligence network, users can elect to receive timely alerts regarding piracy threats, armed conflicts, and vessel affiliations.
5. Spoofing and Signal Jamming Detection: The Insurwave platform uses pattern recognition to detect GNSS signal jamming by analysing discrepancies in satellite and AIS data, and correcting vessel positions on its platform. Real-time alerts when vessels have entered or exited high risk zones, allows brokers and clients to ensure navigational safety and compliance.

The Outcome

The Insurwave platform addresses new maritime threats head-on, offering real-time exposure monitoring and dynamic risk management. Through satellite data, AIS integration, and AI-driven analytics, the platform automates war voyage insurance administration, detects and filters out spoofing attempts, so vessel positions are reported accurately, ensuring that all parties can maintain accurate positioning and operational safety.

Insurwave’s partnership approach exemplifies how technology is transforming how brokers support their clients in high-risk maritime regions. As Simon Lockwood, Head of Shipowners at Willis, highlights, "At Willis, we work with clients operating in some of the most high-risk regions. Insurwave’s platform provides unparalleled visibility into real-time exposures and allows us to offer value-add services to our shipping clients, augmenting the coverage we place on their behalf, with precise, data-driven insights that help them to proactively manage and mitigate their risk."

By leveraging Insurwave’s advanced capabilities, Willis is empowering their shipping clients to navigate uncertainty with greater confidence, reinforcing the critical role of technology in modern maritime insurance.