As low-end cyber criminals increasingly joined the fray with RaaS schemes, the payouts they received encouraged sophisticated hackers to become more active with RaaS for large-scale windfalls. In recent years, ransomware attacks have become significantly more targeted, with criminals spending more time on research, reconnaissance, system penetration and system exploration before dropping the malicious code and demanding huge ransoms for decryption. This has resulted in a dramatic increase in the severity of cyber losses and has placed some pressure on the cyber insurance marketplace.
“The cyber insurance market has rallied around the need for more sophisticated ways to mitigate ransomware,” said Andy Maher (pictured above), head of large accounts, North America Cyber, AXIS Insurance. “The market is hardening in many lines of specialty insurance, but, in the cyber world it’s largely because of ransomware and the fact that small attritional losses aren’t so small anymore. From an underwriting standpoint, markets are taking a closer look at retentions and attachment points. If we’re seeing regular seven-figure…
