Can London become a leader in cyber insurance?

December 16, 2020

Given the rise of hack attacks during the pandemic, it’s hardly surprising that the need for cyber insurance is skyrocketing. Now, London may make a move to become a leader in the industry.

The British capital’s ability to become the world leader in cyber insurance has been outlined in a new report from the City of London Corporation and Accenture.

The Future of Cyber Insurance – Next Steps for the London Market report confirmed the rising cost of cybersecurity, with 69% of the business leaders surveyed saying that ensuring they can protect their businesses from cyber criminals is a constant and costly battle.

While stating that the city has both the cybersecurity ecosystem and the insurance industry in place to achieve dominance in the market, there are some challenges it must overcome.

To take the lead, London must ensure that the country develop standards that underpin cyber insurance products and sharing data to help shape the global cyber insurance market.

Moreover, cyber insurance stakeholders must ensure that they properly communicate the benefits of enlisting their services to businesses.

And the Big Smoke must also support the cyber resilience of UK PLC as domestic demand for cyber insurance grows.

“The City of London has an important part to play in supporting the capital’s re-emergence from the pandemic,” said Catherine McGuinness, policy chair at the City of London Corporation, when speaking with CIR Magazine. “Promoting London as a global cyber insurance hub by convening a group of cross-industry stakeholders will be key to its success.

“Not only does it have the potential of bringing economic benefits to the UK economy, but it will also improve the cyber-resilience of UK businesses more broadly – ultimately helping to keep us all more cyber secure.”

The report comes on the back of a rising tide of cyber attacks having swept across the world during the Covid-19 crisis.

Web application attacks grew by 800% during the first six months of 2020, for instance.

This week alone, corporate America has been shaken by the revelation that software provider SolarWinds had been breached earlier in the year, which may have resulted in thousands of its clients around the world as well as several governmental bodies having been breached.