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U.S. Warns of New Cyber Attacks by Group with China Ties

The Department of Homeland issued a technical alert for cloudhopper, which it said was engaged in cyber espionage and theft of intellectual property, after experts with two prominent U.S. cybersecurity companies warned earlier this week that Chinese hacking activity has surged amid the escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing.
Chinese authorities have repeatedly denied claims by Western cyber security firms that it supports hacking.

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Stolen Apple IDs Used by Hackers to Steal Cash, Warn Chinese Digital Payments Firms

Digital payments services have become a tempting target for cyber-thieves as their popularity surges around the world. Ant Financial, which is controlled by billionaire Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, is estimated to handle more than half of China’s $17 trillion in annual online payments. Formally known as Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group, it leveraged Alipay’s popularity to expand into everything from asset management to insurance, credit scoring and lending. It serves more than 800 million customers. Tencent’s rival payments offering is a key component of the social media service WeChat, which has a billion-plus users.

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Insurance M&A deal value expected to increase by 150% in 2018

Tim Zawacki, Senior Insurance Analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence said, “We are in a period where insurance carriers are reevaluating what is core to their franchise and pushing for greater efficiency in both expenses and capital utilization, which in turn is driving deal volume close to record highs. With a continued push for consolidation even after one of the most active years for P&C and life insurance M&A, a variety of factors will continue to drive transaction deal value beyond 2018.”

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AGCS restructures its ART line of business

Large companies are increasingly seeking to assume more control over their risk management beyond traditional insurance products in property or liability. With our two new lines of business, we can respond to these needs by designing multi-line, multi-year, parametric or capital-market solutions to protect our clients from earnings and cash flow risks. Our new structure and leadership team will help AGCS to further evolve and grow this important segment of our business”, says Hartmut Mai, AGCS Board Member and Chief Underwriting Officer Corporate.

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