Purchases of standalone cybersecurity policies grew in 2019 in the United States, according to an annual trends report from global insurance broker Marsh, with growth in cyber coverage among the firm’s manufacturing clients and the highest growth rate coming from the hospitality and gaming sector.
The report, released Wednesday, finds that 42 percent of Marsh clients in the United States obtained cyber insurance in 2019, “up from 38% in 2018 and more than double the number of companies that purchased coverage in 2014.”
There was 18 percent growth in U.S. clients purchasing standalone cyber policies in 2019, Marsh says, compared to 12 percent growth the previous year.
“As insurers have expanded coverage to include cyber businesses interruption, coverage has also become more attractive to manufacturers, which are increasingly aware of the operational risks cyber threats can present to them. Although purchasing by manufacturers leveled out at just over 40% in 2019, this represents a fivefold increase from 2014,” according to the report.
“High-profile data breaches in the hospitality and gaming sector … and the growing costs of associated remediation and litigation, are likely to continue to fuel purchasing among hotels and casinos,” the report says.
“Marsh saw a 37% increase in the number of new hospitality and gaming clients purchasing standalone cyber insurance in 2019, the highest growth rate among Marsh’s clients. Overall, 61% of Marsh’s hospitality and gaming clients purchased cyber insurance in 2019,” the firm says.
Further, Marsh says in the report, “Three-quarters of Marsh’s education clients now purchase cyber insurance, a reflection of the significant amounts of personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) that education institutions collect from students and alumni, and the confidential research programs they often engage in.”
The report finds that, “Starting in the second quarter of 2019, cyber insurance pricing slowly increased; for all of 2019, average pricing increased approximately 3%.” -- Charlie Mitchell (cmitchell@iwpnews.com)