FM Global reveals cyber markets to watch

A firm that has recently created a new cyber unit has revealed industries they think could be a target which could help brokers sell the emerging cover

Insurance News

By Jordan Lynn

The regional head of FM Global has revealed industries they think could be a target which could help brokers sell the emerging cover.

The company recently announced the launch of new dedicated cyber risk engineering and underwriting units and Stefano Tranquillo, Stefano Tranquillo, senior vice president, Asia Pacific division manager for FM Global, said that certain industries have higher levels of risk.

“I think that industries that typically collect a lot of data, healthcare, education, financial institutions, retail, I think those industries will be particularly prone to these types of attacks but that is not to say that manufacturing, power and utilities aren’t exposed,” Tranquillo told Insurance Business.

“They are probably exposed to a lesser degree but I think that if they too suffer corruption of data or interruption of data services, the impacts can be devastating.”

Tranquillo said that the business expects cyber-related exposures and losses to “grow steadily over time” throughout the Asia Pac market as they are set to have “a major impact” on clients.

“We think that the frequency and cyber incidents will continue to grow, primarily because connectivity is increasing all the time,” Tranquillo noted.

“I think that already today we are seeing a lot of media coverage in terms of high cost cyber breaches and I think that is raising awareness particularly within the C-suite but this is a problem that I think will continue to evolve and increase significantly, particularly as we become more interconnected.”

Cyber hit the headlines again last week with one Perth real estate agent dodging a $500,000 attack thanks to a fast-acting employee.

This case stresses the point made by Tranquillo that “the majority of loss is preventable,” in the cyber market.

“We already see this as an opportunity to work with clients to reduce their cyber related exposures and mitigate cyber related losses,” Tranquillo continued. “By creating these teams, we hope to provide our clients with a risk based framework and really the tools to assess and improve risk.”


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$500,000 cyber theft foiled
Zurich: SMEs increasingly worried by cyber risk
‘Change coming’ through key Aussie market
 

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