While cyber insurance chatter has escalated over the last decade, its origins date back to the 1990s, when the world was just figuring out how to monetize Netscape browsers and Apache web servers. Fast-forward to 2024, and the global cyber insurance industry is worth somewhere around $12 to $15 billion in 2024 premiums and is growing between 20% to 30% per year.
Until recently, standalone cyber insurance sales were limited to the biggest organizations in the world, primarily in the U.S. This is no longer true. Cyber insurance sales are growing precipitously in Asia and Europe, while small and midsize businesses are buying policies at an increasing rate.
Why are cyber insurance policies and premiums on the rise? Visible and costly cyberattacks like ransomware are the obvious answer. But I believe cyber insurance proliferation is also a function of growing executive- and board-level understanding of cyber-risk and its role in corporate risk management and governance. Finally, regulations from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the EU (Network and Information Security Directive) and others are persuading corporate boards to supplement their security strategies by…
