Benchmarking Trends: As Cyber Concerns Broaden, Insurance Purchases Rise

Increasing frequency and severity of cyber losses is driving demand for cyber insurance and purchases of higher limits.

Health care facilities, universities, and schools continue to be on cybercriminals’ radar, but attacks in the hospitality and gaming, power and utilities, and other sectors, reveal that no organization is immune to a cyber-attack or failure of technology.

Cyber-attacks are escalating in frequency and intensity, posing a growing threat to businesses and countries’ national security. High-profile cyber incidents in 2014 reflected the expanding spectrum of cyber threats — from point-of-sale breaches against customer accounts to targeted denial-of-service attacks meant to disable a company’s network.

Insureds in ever-larger numbers are seeking financial protection through insurance, buying coverage for losses from data breaches and business outages. In fact, the number of US-based Marsh clients purchasing standalone cyber insurance increased 32% in 2014 over 2013. The cyber take-up rate — the percentage of existing Marsh financial and professional liability clients that purchased cyber insurance — rose to 16%. Early evidence in 2015 suggests a continued acceleration in the demand for cyber insurance.

In “Benchmarking Trends: As Cyber Concerns Broaden, Insurance Purchases Rise,” we provide details on the growing demand for cyber insurance, including:

• Which industries are seeing the largest increases in take-up of cyber-insurance and the degree to which they are increasing the limits they purchase.
• How insurers are reacting to the increase in demand for cyber coverage.
• Regulatory and litigation developments related to cyber risks.
• Solutions beyond insurance that can be employed to mitigate the risk.