Last month, nearly 500 cyber insurance professionals representing 18 countries gathered in the heart of London’s financial district at Zywave’s Cyber Risk Insights Conference to discuss the most pressing topics impacting their specialty.
Formerly known as the Advisen Cyber Risk Insights Conference, the 11th annual event featured hot industry topics such as cyber war and ransomware. Notably, David Howden, founder and CEO of Howden Group, delivered the keynote address, boldly stating that while cyber is not the most relevant product out there, it is “by far the most exciting.”
According to Howden, cyber insurance offers a real opportunity for the insurance market to tackle a long-term industry challenge – the speed of innovation. He encouraged the audience to be bold and innovative. The industry veteran also emphasized that cyber insurance is a small market compared to other lines of business, but it offers the most potential future growth. He believes that the future growth of the cyber market centers around developing relevant products that clients will buy, addressing issues around systemic risk and profitability, and expansion of available capital.
Howden warned that if the industry does not master its systemic risk issues, “we will actually fail at growing the market.” He advised the market to quickly resolve debates over cyber warfare, adding that “we need to be talking positive in the industry about the industry, not arguing amongst ourselves about it or debating it.”
In alignment with Howden’s keynote, key themes throughout the event covered the pressing need to attract cyber professionals to insurance, a re-emergence of ransomware incidents—with even more aggressive tactics, and challenges with cyber war exclusions.
From the technology side, the focus remains on uncovering critical cyber insights. As cybersecurity threats and cyberattacks become more prevalent and severe, experts agreed on the importance of leveraging the power of data to deliver the cyber education and protection organizations need to identify exposures, determine potential frequency and severity, and determine the right coverages.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Zywave’s Cyber Risk Insights Conference is that now is the time to innovate and capitalize on the cyber market because the threats—and opportunities—are not going anywhere.
“If there’s any one product where it’s time for us to stand up collectively and show that we can be dynamic, show that we can innovate, it is in cyber,” Howden stated. “Let’s become relevant together.”