Lloyd's boss predicts boom figures for size of cyber insurance market

Lloyd’s boss Inga Beale says the size of cyber insurance market figures could double in the next three years.

The chief executive told Zoe Kleinman, host of Today programme: “The cyber market at the moment we estimate is about $3-3.5bn, probably in the next three years that could easily double”.

“This threat is really alive for businesses,” she said. 

Asked by Kleinman whether businesses actually wanted cyber insurance, Beale said: “It depends. We have seen most of the demand, we are a very global market, most of the demand has come from the US so far. That’s because they have put in some regulation that insisted businesses report all data breaches.

“That regulation, similar regulation, is coming into Europe next year and that therefore we see probably a big increase in demand for insurance right across Europe.”

Beale dismissed the notion that cyber attacks were rare, adding: ”Businesses are being breached all the time and it is a race for the IT teams, for the cyber security teams to keep up with all the action that is going on, whether it is malicious hackers just doing something for fun or whether they are trying to get money out of businesses or whether it is state-backed activity - so there is a real threat out there.”

Beale’s comments came on the same day a Lloyd’s report predicted cyber attack losses could reach $53bn.