As the Obama administration begins to place more focus on cybersecurity and data protection, the cyber insurance market is playing a different, but central role in both shaping and building a cybersecurity infrastructure. With cyber insurance at an all-time high and rates predicted to increase dramatically, President Obama has been simultaneously encouraging expanded coverage for critical and other industries, according to Inside Security. In fact, cyber insurance will be center stage when the president’s newly established cybersecurity commission meets next week to “examine the challenges and opportunities for the industry.” The May 16 meeting will be the second by the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity and its focus on insurance further exemplifies the critical role the insurance industry is playing in shaping data-security policy. Additionally, the commission “will make detailed recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity in both the public and private sectors while protecting privacy, ensuring public safety and economic and national security, fostering discovery and development of new technical solutions,” according to the meeting agenda.
Next week’s commission will also investigate the “challenges and opportunities for the financial sector which has been touting the importance of insurers in driving data-security investments.” The financial sector is not the only industry exploring cyber insurance’s role in this endeavor. The American Bar Association recently issued a “handbook” tailored for law firms regarding the availability of cyber insurance, calling it “a must-have guide to network security/cyber-liability insurance for lawyers and law firms.” This increase of interest in data-security investments, combined with the demand of quantitative data goes hand-in-hand with cyber insurance’s role in the DHS proposed cyber-incident data repository which will aggregate data to determine what is and is not working when responding to cyber-attacks. Comments on the DHS repository proposal are due May 24.