The cyber risk landscape is becoming ever-more complex. But as the challenges increase, so too does the knowledge and expertise of the cyber insurance market.
We recently gathered a diverse panel of cyber expert speakers – from underwriting, broking, wordings, security consulting and data & analytics – to share insights and discuss the ways in which cyber insurance goes beyond a policy in enabling customers to build enterprise-wide resilience to cyber risks.
The proliferation of “ransomware as a service” has meant that there are now more threat actors attempting ransomware attacks. And the ability to use AI to mount attacks has significantly lowered the barriers to entry. Attackers further automate and enhance all phases of a cyber kill-chain through AI and it also enables attackers to scale and effectively penetrate lower market segments, disrupting current risk distribution models.
AXA XL’s Cyber claims analysis report (AXA XL’s Cyber claims analysis report), released in September 2025, revealed that the volume of ransomware attacks continues to increase almost month on month. Our claims experts explained at the event that already in the second week of February 2026, the frequency of ransomware attacks is 50% greater than it was for the entire month in February 2025.
In more than 90% of ransomware cases there is a business impact, the Cyber claims analysis showed.
Claims and incident insights like these give underwriters and brokers greater knowledge about how the cyber threat is evolving and how to help customers to build their resilience.
Attendees at the Global Cyber Broker Insight Series heard how policy wordings are adapting to take account of the changing nature of the threat. AXA XL recently introduced a Generative AI endorsement, to help businesses manage risks arising from developing their own Generative AI models, for example.
Building enterprise cyber resilience
In October last year, the UK Government wrote to the CEOs of all UK businesses, urging them to make cyber security a board-level responsibility. Cyber risks don’t exist in silos. They are a C-Suite issue, coming across the desks of CTOs, CFOs, CEOs and General Counsel, among others. That means that managing those risks requires a well-rounded, collaborative approach, our broker panellists noted.
Cyber insurance policies can help risk managers with their overall strategy to build enterprise risk resilience, going beyond risk transfer, they said.
Brokers and underwriters are learning all the time from the nuances of cyber events. The data analytics that underwriters and brokers have access to, can empower risk managers when they’re having internal conversations and enable them to articulate to their C-Suites the ways in which they’re building greater resilience to the cyber threat - and adapting plans to recover quickly and sustainably if an attack occurs.
The innovation backdrop
The march of progress is not showing any signs of slowing. Technology like AI is increasingly a part of all our day-to-day working lives. Ashok Krishan, AXA XL’s Chief Innovation, Data & Analytics Officer and keynote speaker at the event, said that while there is understandable nervousness about the impact of AI, it’s important to bear in mind that AI is not totally transformative – yet.
Training on AI can help people better understand what this technology can do – and what it can’t, he said. It’s important to ensure that everyone becomes comfortable with this tech and be open to possibility while understanding its boundary constraints.
Using AI to help triage cyber claims, for example, enables our claims experts to focus their efforts on the areas where their knowledge and expertise add real value to customers.
Cyber insurance policies can help risk managers with their overall strategy to build enterprise risk resilience
Future horizons
Another area of innovation that the cyber insurance market and our customers are keeping a keen eye on is the development of quantum computing. (Rise of the super machine; future quantum computing risks).
Attendees at the event heard how quantum computing will represent a paradigm shift. And, while quantum computers won’t entirely replace the computers we use today, they are coming.
As well as the enormous benefits it will bring in machine learning and modelling and simulations, among other advances, quantum computing will change cyber risk, Mathieu Cousin, Cyber Risk Consulting & Threat Intelligence Strategist at AXA XL told delegates.
Asymmetric encryption, whereby two mathematically different keys are paired is a commonly used technique in today’s cybersecurity. While it’s currently a challenge for computers to break this form of encryption, it will be simple – and fast – for quantum computers and their enormous processing power, for example.
The good news, however, is that we have a window of time – likely about ten years – in which to build resilience to this changing threat before quantum computing becomes widely adopted. It’s vital that we talk about these issues now and begin to think about the security transition that will be needed – but without panicking, attendees heard.
Enhancing knowledge
During our London-based event, we heard from cyber security experts about unpicking the mystery of insider cyber threats and from a cybercrime prevention specialist about uncovering access brokers – threat actors who work with the ransomware affiliates that carry out attacks – and the way they operate.
We learned more about how policy wordings have adapted, about the claims landscape and future risks. And we discussed innovation and the benefits and pitfalls it might bring.
As this risk area evolves and changes, it’s important, we believe, to continue to derive insights and make use of them to help us to create coverage that fits our clients’ needs and policies which go beyond risk transfer to help customers build resilience across their businesses and their supply chains.
The Cyber Broker Insight Series event was a fascinating opportunity to do just that and we look forward to many more.
