
Here we highlight the most popular stories on cyber that appeared in 2020 on GC Capital Ideas.
1. Silent Cyber: Solutions Emerge Amid the Uncertainties: Silent cyber, also known as unintended or non-affirmative coverage, refers to the potential cyber exposures contained within traditional property and casualty insurance policies, which may not implicitly include or exclude cyber risks. In many cases, traditional policies will not specifically refer to cyber, or the language remains untested to the exposure, and could theoretically pay claims for cyber losses in certain circumstances, according to Erica Davis, North America Cyber Center of Excellence Leader, Guy Carpenter.
2. Looking Beyond the Clouds – A Cyber Insurance Industry Catastrophe Loss Study: Because it is essential to develop a deep understanding of the characteristics of cyber catastrophe events and the financial impact they could have on the standalone cyber insurance market as it exists today, CyberCube Analytics and Guy Carpenter have collaborated to help (re)insurers quantify cyber risk by pooling data resources and analytics capabilities to cultivate a view of the potential U.S. cyber industry loss from a range of different cyber catastrophe scenarios.
3. Pandemic Poses a New Catastrophe Paradigm – Cyber Catastrophe Potential: Rapid technological changes, digitalization in particular, have already transformed the characteristics of risks assumed by the (re)insurance market. COVID-19 will only accelerate these trends. Cyber is a working example of how the risk transfer sector is capable of responding to transformative developments, and it provides a glimpse into the growth potential on offer as new risk pools emerge, according to Peter Hearn, President and CEO of Guy Carpenter.
4. Video: Cyber Underwriters Avoid COVID-19 Exclusions Even as Ransomware Concerns Soar: Ransomware has become the most concerning development for insurers and reinsurers over the past 18 months. Small and large companies are becoming more dependent on technology to conduct their businesses and are thus increasingly subject to technology’s unique vulnerabilities. As ransomware demands have grown, insurers and reinsurers are looking at their cyber books and examining a number of ways to deal with these developments, according to Siobhan O’Brien, Head of Guy Carpenter’s International Cyber Center of Excellence.
5. Why 2020 Has Made the Ever-Evolving Cyber Landscape Even More Dynamic: Increasing reliance on technology makes businesses more vulnerable to risks inside and outside the organization. The resulting inter-connectivity creates a dependency maze across businesses and their business partners. For the (re)insurance industry, this supply chain web fuels severity concerns and the potential for systemic events. All the while, threats to businesses are becoming more advanced and difficult to detect, according to Will Garland, President, Centers of Excellence, Guy Carpenter, and Erica Davis, North America Cyber Center of Excellence Leader, Guy Carpenter.