Cyber insurance market set to grow significantly: Zurich

Cyber and data risks are among the top concerns for global businesses and the cyber insurance market is set to grow significantly, especially in the Asia-Pacific area, Zurich Insurance said.

Across Europe, East Asia and the Pacific, cyber-attacks ranked the number one threat to doing business, and they also top the concerns of organizations in North America, according to the insurer’s survey.

Owing to a huge increase in ransomware attacks and social engineering fraud, an increasing demand for cyber insurance has been observed since 2017, Zurich said. 

To address demand, more underwriters are being attracted to participate in the market, with over 170 insurers globally offering solutions for cyber risks as of 2017.

Facing the growing number of Internet attacks, countries throughout the world have been strengthening regulations to protect people’s privacy and data.

For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force in May 2018 in the European Union, and the US has about 20 national privacy or data security laws.

The Swiss insurer estimated the global cyber insurance market had a value of US$2.92 billion in 2017, of which the US contributed to around 63 percent of premiums. The Asia-Pacific market is expected to see growth in the future, although the region only accounts for a slight share now.

Wang Shunan, a senior underwriting manager at Zurich General Insurance Company (China) Limited, noted that China has seen growing demand for cyber insurance since 2017, in spite of its current low penetration of such policies compared to that of the US and Europe.

Wang added that the Chinese cyber insurance sector is now dominated by four foreign players, including American International Group, Allianz SE, Chubb Limited and Zurich.

Zurich said that for China, 2017 marked a ground-breaking year for cybersecurity and data privacy, as a cybersecurity law went into effect that year.

In May 2018, "Information Security Techniques – Personal Information Security Specification" came into force, which is expected to be the new national standard on personal data protection in the world’s second largest economy.