The insurance industry faces an uphill battle to keep pace on cyber insurance, an expert has said.
As the industry continues to grapple with how best to deal with the emerging, and expanding, risk that clients face on the cyber front the idea of an annual cyber policy may be dated and leaving clients exposed.
Greg Hodgkiss, CIS CEO, said that cyber criminals have been able to develop and evolve cyber threats at a rate which even the savviest insurers would struggle to keep pace with through an annual policy.
Search and compare product listings for Cyber insurance from specialty market providers here
“An insurer doesn’t have a hope of keeping up with that and, if you issue an annual policy, you are guaranteed to find claims you can’t manage and the client is guaranteed to have claims that will be knocked back,” Hodgkiss told
Insurance Business.
However, Hodgkiss does believe that Australia is progressing in terms of its understanding of cyber insurance and risk. While the US still leads the way both in understanding and take-up of the cover, Australia is transitioning so that the risk becomes a board-level issue which is vital for insurance take-up.
“In America that transition took place 18 months to 23 months ago; today it is happening in Australia,” Hodgkiss continued. “Most of our directors on boards don’t have a compliance, insurance or cyber risk background - so there is a great need for understanding at board room level on how to do this and also a real need for the insurers to provide products that are relevant.”
Related stories:
Brokers and cyber: why it’s about much more than ransomware
What can Australia learn from the US on cyber insurance?
.jpg)
