Voices in the Cyber Crowd: Key Takeaways from NetDiligence Miami
More than a month after NetDiligence’s Cyber Risk Summit in Miami in February, I find myself reflecting on some of the most significant topics of conversation at the event.
NetD has been an excellent place for newcomers and veterans to network and discuss the latest insights into cyber risk. The soft market was a big topic of conversation, especially regarding predictions for the future.
One of the biggest takeaways from the event is that the cyber insurance industry is dynamic, and there will continue to be cycles of hard and soft. “New brokers come in a soft market and are surprised when it shifts,” said Heather Osborne, Director of Global Events & Programming at NetDiligence. “Until you’ve gone through both cycles, you don’t know how to write insurance.”
“Brokers are really feeling the strain of the soft market,” Spencer Wallis, from Coalition’s production underwriting team, observed. “We are doing everything we can to support them at this time.”
Business interruption continues to be important
Business interruption (BI) was another key topic of conversation, especially in terms of preparing policyholders for these types of events and knowing who from the panel needs to be involved, and when, in order to reduce downtime as much as possible.
The healthcare industry, in particular, was still top of mind, with the major fallout from the Change Healthcare attack last year still fresh in attendees’ minds. “It’s just the topic that people keep coming back to,” said Osborne.
Insurers are also grappling with how to manage these types of claims with a large tower. In a panel moderated by Deb Hirschorn, Managing Director and US Cyber & Technology Claims Leader at Lockton, leaders discussed everyone’s role in the process, including the broker, the primary insurer, and the excess insurer. The panelists discussed how important it is to engage the forensic accountants at the very beginning of the claim to prevent any confusion or delay when the process is too unstructured.
“As the broker, we need to be more proactive in the process to organize the accountants, manage client expectations, as well as keep the excess tower apprised of the loss,” said Hirschorn. “The full tower needs to be engaged from the very beginning of the quantification of the BI loss, even if their layer is not immediately implicated.
Artificial intelligence still seen as a new frontier
AI being applied to underwriting, claims, and other insurance practices is still seen as a buzzy new concept that is foreign to the broader market. Ethics, compliance, and criminal exposure were all discussed as potential AI risks.
“Organizations need to be aware of the risks associated with generative AI technologies like ChatGPT,” said Travis Kolupanowich from Coalition’s business development team. “Especially as threat actors begin to lean on these solutions more to improve, scale, and personalize their social engineering attacks.”
“Organizations need to be aware of the risks associated with their own employees using these technologies, especially when they’re using them without permission or on the side,” added Osborne.
A few Coalition updates
On the Coalition side of the house, the brokers I spoke with were excited about upcoming changes to our policy forms and recent changes we’ve already made, our growing Coalition Security offerings, including Managed Detection and Response and Security Awareness Training, and the recent regionalization of our US team.
Overall, we hope brokers will continue to look to Coalition as a true leader in the cyber insurance industry. Check out our case studies and other resources to continue to learn about trends in this space and how Active Insurance helps support policyholders throughout the complete policy lifecycle, including before, during, and after a potential cyber incident.
