To protect local consumers from cyberattacks such as the recent ransomware, the Insurance Commission is urging domestic insurers to come up with cyber insurance products.
“The Philippine insurance industry, despite the prevalence of data breaches, ransomware attacks and the global advancement of the cyber insurance market, is a step behind in the development of insurance products specifically designed to protect the insuring public to risks posed by the fast-paced development of the internet-based technologies and activities including its concomitant threats,” Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said in a statement over the weekend.
“At present, it is only AIG Philippines Insurance Inc. that has an approved cyber insurance policy which is currently available in the market, while one leading non-life insurance company had already submitted a proposed cyber insurance and data asset and network security products for approval of the Insurance Commission,” Funa noted.
The lone available cyber insurance product in the country “offers protection against losses due to improper denial or approval of access to data or information, breach to a computer software, system or security, or theft of a computer hardware, among others,” according to Funa.
As for specific cyberattacks such as ransomware, Funa said that “by optional extension, cyber extortion liability may be covered which provides for payment in case of extortion loss as a result of security threat, as well as payment for the cost of investigation to determine the source thereof.”
For Funa, “the cyber insurance market has a huge potential for growth since global demands are on the rise.”
“The proliferation of cyber insurance products in the market will also be highly beneficial to the public since more competitive and innovative cyber insurance products, which can directly answer their needs, will be readily available,” Funa added.
Earlier reports noted that almost nine out of every 10 cyber insurance policies globally covered companies in the US, hence making many firms outside the US vulnerable to cyberattack losses. —BEN O. DE VERA