The Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation (ARPC) is undertaking a 12-month study on the threat of cyber terrorism in Australia, including the nature and cost of physical damage to commercial property.

ARPC teamed up with UK-based Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies and France-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to identify and explore current and prospective threats, plausible scenarios, and the practicalities of extending insurance coverage to include cyber terrorism in Australia.

“Business insurance policies and the ARPC scheme currently exclude coverage for acts of cyber terrorism which affect commercial and high-value residential property in Australia,” said Christopher Wallace, ARPC chief executive. “ARPC expects the cyber research study findings to inform development of government policy in this important area, including the three-year review of the terrorism-insurance scheme by the Treasury.”

The research study will also significantly add to the data set and knowledge in the under-researched area of cyber-terrorism risk in Australia, Wallace said.