It seems that almost every other day, another insurer enters the market with a supposedly new and innovative cyber insurance solution. There is certainly much demand and potential for cyber cover to become a necessary risk management tool, to prove that insurers are client- and risk-oriented and to shape the insurance markets of tomorrow.
That being said, Warren Buffett rightly warns the industry that Cyber is, by and large, uncharted territory and that covering these threats is more complicated than doing so for more 'traditional' and predictable threats such as earthquakes or hurricanes.
While cyber insurance is supposed to provide protection for many hardly known or calculable risks, I think it is worth underlining that insurance always remains a legal product. Thus, it is in the hands of insurers, brokers and policyholders to develop sustainable wordings (next to adequate premiums). And there remain lots of challenges, not least in view of the upcoming GDPR, liability exposures as well as potential fines and their insurability or new options for collective redress as proposed by the EU Commission with its New Deal for Consumers.
Certainly, it will be those insurers that build their cyber insurance offering on profound risk management principles and a healthy and balanced risk appetite that will prevail. It is a marathon, not a sprint!
Warren Buffett: Cybersecurity risk 'is uncharted territory. It’s going to get worse, not better'