Unlocking Cyber Insurance opportunity

As insurers grapple with managing the growing number of digital-related risks, it should be emphasized that getting onto the front foot in terms of cybersecurity does not just mean layering IT systems on top of legacy solutions. Rather, an approach that involves a mix of people, processes, and technology is required to drive a cyber-resilient enterprise. Cybersecurity has always been viewed as a technology risk rather than a business risk. This misconception extends to business resilience, which is usually thought of as disaster recovery among insurance CISOs and security executives. In the meantime, insurance carriers and their associates are gearing up for the stringent regulatory scrutiny that will accompany GDPR, which came into effect in May 2018. They are aware of their overall accountability to recognize cyber threats in advance, reduce an organization’s exposure to malicious attack and, most importantly, react quickly. In practical terms this requires insurers to put in place and follow through on a watertight cybersecurity strategy. With this, the discussion touched upon the below: 1. In today’s digital world the boundaries of insurance have extended beyond the enterprise, as insurers increasingly co-operate in new ecosystems built around managing newly digitised assets. These include connected cars, healthcare monitoring, and connected homes. And with all these there is an increasing cyber risk that is coming along. So how traditional models in insurance can help the industry cope with such challenging demands now placed upon them? 2. Insurance carriers are fully aware that their security posture must be responsive and agile to counter the growing cyber threat. Equally they feel that the effectiveness of their defences is constrained by a range of factors, such as IT legacy systems. Considering this, how can we manage the use of legacy systems that may pose a greater security risk to the insurance industry. 3. Emerging needs in the market are shifting cyber insurance to solutions, and how this can help companies / start-ups grow. 4. How cybersecurity technologies will evolve at speed in the coming days especially when seen to address the intensifying threat on our digital consumers and where insurance has a key role to play. Speaker Bio: Arunachalam has over 30 years of senior management experience in the insurance industry in both Direct and Reinsurance space with India's respected professional insurance firms. From the cyber insurance front, he has been engaged with consulting for clients on Cyber risk including risk assessment, cyber insurance design, negotiation of terms, placement of risk with carriers, claims management and so on and so forth. Sectors handled by him, includes Banking and Financial institutions, Technology firms, Services sector, Engineering Goods manufacturing, new generation start-up companies like the payment wallet industry. His latest expansion in Cyber Insurance is in the area of advisory on GDPR related coverage under Cyber Liability insurance, which is a new exposure to companies with European exposure.