More data needed to boost sales of cyber crime insurance
Cyber insurance remains a niche market because there is a dearth of data to enable carriers to underwrite and price risk. That's partly due to the market segment being relatively young; there isn't the historical backlog of intelligence to call upon to make predictive modelling useful, unlike in other parts of the industry. But it is also because there's no centralised source of information on cyber crime for insurers to access. The problem is intensified by cyber criminals' ability to evolve quickly and adapt to new deterrents.

Insurers may need to change their underwriting and pricing approach to meet bullish forecasts for sales of cyber coverage, considering the speedbumps keeping many carriers from stepping on the accelerator and prompting the majority of potential buyers to hit the brakes.

In theory, cyber insurance should be a product that sells itself, given the increasing frequency and severity of high-profile hacker attacks against major organizations as well as the growing number of individuals coping with online identity theft. Yet in practice many insurers are struggling to get a handle on this promising but problematic market, while the majority of buyers are hesitating to add the coverage to their risk management portfolio.