News in Focus

Coalition’s Ram: Insurtech feels no pressure to maintain lofty but “warranted” valuation

Coalition’s Shawn Ram has said that being cash flow positive since July 2022 means the insurtech feels no pressure to tee up its next liquidity event, with the $5bn valuation it achieved coming after funding conditions had already “tanked” and amid higher scrutiny.

Google Cloud’s Shokrai: Cloud is safer for insurers than on-prem infrastructure

Cloud providers like Google are exposed to so many types of security threats that they are capable of staving off more cyber attacks than many on-premise systems, according to Monica Shokrai, head of business risk and insurance at Google Cloud.

Michael Loney introduces Cyber Risk Insurer!

Ahead of today’s hotly anticipated launch of Cyber Risk Insurer, Janet Babin of The Insurer TV caught up with the editor of the new title and longstanding journalist at The Insurer, Michael Loney, on what to expect and why it’s never been more important to have a dedicated news source covering the rapidly growing cyber insurance market.

Cowbell’s Le and Thompson: Threat actors heightening their focus on “quality” of data

Cowbell’s chief claims officer said that threat actors are becoming more sophisticated in their attacks, now targeting the “quality” of data rather than just volume, and that social engineering threats have evolved beyond just business email compromise.

CyberCube’s Millaire: Cyber modelling transformed from being “interesting” to “useful”

CyberCube’s CEO Pascal Millaire said that his firm’s accurate predictions of industry loss ratios in recent years have been “proof points” in the maturity and validity of cyber modelling and said cyber models have gone from being “interesting” to being “useful”.

Elpha Secure’s Malin: Rise in cyber ILS transactions illustrates need for more capacity

The president of SME-focused cyber insurtech Elpha Secure said the spike in cyber ILS transactions last year reflected demand for more capacity in the cyber segment, and also laid his firm’s focus on improving insureds’ cyber hygiene.

MOXFIVE CEO: Strong incident response means giving clients a sense of “control”

Cyber incident response firm MOXFIVE’s CEO said the resurgence of threat activity has created whiplash within the incident response community, and also discussed the maturation of the industry and the importance of providing clients with a feeling of “control” after a breach.

William Pitt: Cyber set to light touch points between underwriter and insured

While most traditional insurance lines typically see relatively limited interaction between insurers and policyholders, the emerging cyber market redefines the relationship between the two parties.

JKJ’s Bretschneider: Greater “duty of care” awareness needed for email compromise

Johnson Kendall & Johnson’s cyber practice leader has said insureds need a greater awareness of the “duty of care” obligations associated with business email compromise breach events, warning this could lead to claims being challenged down the road.

At-Bay’s Crocker: SMEs remain “target-rich environment” as insurtech touts MDR

Small to medium-sized businesses remain “a target-rich environment” for threat actors, according to At-Bay’s head of digital forensic and incident response Larry Crocker, who also touted the importance of managed detection and response services.

NetDiligence highlights LatAm market at Miami Beach cyber risk conference

The organisers behind NetDiligence have wanted to create a specific programme for the Latin American market for some time, and seized the opportunity at the recent Cyber Risk Summit, which took place last week in Miami.

Surefire CEO: Recent surge in threat activity “helpful indicator” for potential cat event

Surefire Cyber’s CEO said that the wave of threat activity in recent years has provided “a helpful indicator” of how the industry might respond to a catastrophic cyber event, which he said remains a “difficult problem” with more answers needed.

K2 Cyber’s Hannes: New MGA starting with “blank slate” and power of existing platform

K2 Cyber’s Meghan Hannes said that the newly-launched venture plans to combine the power of incumbency brought about by K2’s existing industry relationships and product set with the opportunity to take a “blank slate” approach to cyber.

Fenix 24’s Renfrow and Grazman: Threat actors “not providing same level of service”

An erosion of ethics and increased carelessness among threat actors are making breach response both harder and easier, according to the co-founders of cyber incident response firm Fenix24, as they highlighted the life and death stakes of breach incidents.

PierFerd’s Panensky says newly-launched law firm offers “happiness” and “freedom”

Pierson Ferdinand is among the biggest legal start-ups in history, launching with over 120 professionals in January, and according to a partner in its cybersecurity practice Stu Panensky, the launch was motivated by offering staff “happiness” and freedom”.

Tokio Marine’s Ingerslev: 2022 lull in cyber threat activity was “anomaly”

Tokio Marine HCC’s Jacob Ingerslev said that the cyber market is going through a natural swing between hard and soft market conditions and called the lull in threat activity in 2022 an “anomaly”, predicting that conditions will become firmer.

The Insurer TV’s Year in Review Part 2: Casualty, cyber and an insurtech roller coaster

Our year in review with The Insurer’s editorial team continues, with our latest episode featuring our North America editorial team – David Bull, James Thaler, Christopher Munro and Michael Loney.

Axis’ Freeman: Cyber cat bond will “accelerate” market, paving the way for more transactions

Axis’ Kyle Freeman hopes the company’s world-first 144A cyber cat bond – a $75mn Long Walk Re transaction – will be used as a template by its peers and “help accelerate the build-out of this cyber cat bond market”.

Corvus’ Rebholz: Cyber premiums not keeping up with threat landscape

Corvus’ chief information security officer Jason Rebholz has warned that premiums in the cyber market are failing to keep pace with the current threat landscape.

CFC’s Burns: Clarity on systemic events will enable cyber reinsurance market to grow

The planned UK Cyber Monitoring Centre can help deliver the clarity around systemic event definitions required for the cyber reinsurance market to grow at pace, according to CFC’s James Burns.