Cyber risk continues to evolve at a fast pace and we are all still learning. Collaboration to obtain better risk understanding will enable the insurance market to provide sustainable coverage for now and the future.
The cyber risk landscape is fast evolving. Throughout the risk chain, from client to broker to underwriter, working to understand this complex risk and putting in place strategies to assess, mitigate, manage and transfer it, requires empathy and collaboration.
As awareness of the potential severity and frequency of cyber risks has increased, so too has demand for cyber insurance coverage from clients across the world and from diverse industry sectors.
As a marketplace, we need to work to ensure that not only are we helping clients to understand their own risks and build their resilience, but that insurance coverage is relevant and suited to their changing needs.
Towards a sustainable marketplace
The cyber insurance market has undergone a fast and quite severe market cycle. Until recently, this coverage was not widely bought outside of the United States, but the volume of cyber attacks and a better understanding of the potential severity of the risk has meant that in the rest of the world there is now a marked uptick in demand for cyber insurance.
Some sections of the insurance market were offering coverage that was not necessarily commensurate with the premium, and when losses occurred rates had to be hiked in many cases.
This quite rapid hardening of the market was clearly a problem for clients, many of whom were becoming more aware of the risk and more interested in buying coverage.
This hardening was alleviated by an influx of new capacity into the cyber insurance space. While this has given buyers some relief, it is now vital that we all act responsibly to ensure a stable and sustainable marketplace for the future that will enable us to work with clients to manage and transfer their risk, shielded from abrupt pricing swings.
Supporting clients
To help clients adapt to the changing nature of the cyber threat and to build their resilience, the AXA Group and 色多多视频is making significant investment to support the evolution of cyber insurance coverage - not just for today but for the future.
We’re carrying out some state-of-the-art work on data and analytics and we want to use the knowledge we gain to help our clients mitigate their cyber risks. We realise it is important to make use of data not just when an attack occurs but before an event, to help clients manage, mitigate and prevent losses.
Collaboration is vital. Our underwriters are aware that they cannot only consider “perfect” risks; we need instead to go the extra mile and help those clients who are less mature in their cyber risk understanding.
By partnering with clients early in their cyber journey, by providing them with a form of roadmap we can work alongside them to better understand their risks and help them to build resilience. Of course, one day, these clients will be mature risks.
You are not alone
One of the biggest challenges that our clients, and we their underwriters, face is in gathering information about cyber risks.
We are trying to reduce this burden on clients by developing in-house tools to collect and analyse data. This will have benefits for all of those in the cyber risk chain; not only will be quality of data be better but there will be cost efficiencies too.
Improving the knowledge base of all the actors in this area – clients, brokers, insurers and so on – will enable us all to better meet the challenges of this rapidly changing and fast-moving area of risk.
Continual upskilling
We all are aware of the need to continue to build our knowledge and expertise about cyber risk.
Our Cyber Centre of Expertise is aimed at developing knowledge and tools to help us and our clients develop the understanding and the resources to manage the changing cyber risk.
The Cyber Centre of Expertise is helping to equip our underwriters to have complex conversations with clients. And it gives our clients access to resources that will enable them to build cyber resilience.
We recently ran training in France around the Olympic and Paralympic Games to raise awareness of cyber risks, for example.
As the risk evolves, so too will the risk management and transfer tools available. By working together with empathy, understanding and constructive dialogue, we can increase awareness and knowledge and ensure that there is a sustainable cyber insurance marketplace for now and tomorrow.
