GDPR to drive cyber business in 2018

The implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) across the EU in May is expected to have a major impact on the re/insurance market, according to many of the executives who we interviewed for our year-end questionnaire.

“We expect this legislation will drive increased interest in cyber-related cover, particularly given the robust fines and stringent requirements that it introduces for instances of data breach,” said Iain Bremner, managing director, Barbican Managing Agency.

Samit Shah, insurance solutions manager, BitSight, agreed: “I expect to see regulations drive significant conversation in 2018, focused on cybersecurity risk management. Companies are anxious to avoid public scrutiny associated with a large data breach, and will go to great lengths to avoid attention from the media,” Shah said.

Cyber risk remains difficult to predict, not only because of a lack of historic data, but also because the threat is constantly changing.

“Underwriting is a blend of both art and science, but good underwriters know when they have enough information to make their decision and when they are leaving money on the table,” Shah said. “Many cyber underwriters today lack the real, tangible data needed to make accurate business decisions. What does this data look like? How can underwriters obtain it? In 2018, I expect underwriters to get smart about leveraging data to make smarter decisions for themselves and their insureds moving forward.”

Luzi Hitz, CEO, PERILS AG, noted that we are only at the beginning of the development of the cyber line of business and given our increasing reliance on the Internet it is likely to become a major insurance class.

“This will of course open up significant growth opportunities for the industry at large, particularly given the emergence of new cyber-related regulation, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe – which will create business opportunities as well as affecting internal processes,” Hitz said.

This is just a snapshot of what executives told us in our Christmas questionnaire. For the full comments from all 16 executives that took part in our survey, please click  here.