Pool Reinsurance Co. Ltd. said it will begin underwriting risks from cyber terrorism from April 2018.
The coverage will include "material damage and direct business interruption using a cyber-trigger," the reinsurer said, adding that damage to intangible assets is not covered. The offering resulted from a study conducted by the Centre for Risk Studies at the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School, on behalf of the state-backed terrorism reinsurance pool.
The report examines cyber terrorism scenarios that "provide insight into what types of attacks might be possible in the next few years that could impact Pool Re's portfolio," said Simon Ruffle, director of research and Innovation at the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies.
"Businesses have become increasingly concerned about the extensive repercussions these types of [cyber terror] attacks could have on them. This was a clear gap in our coverage which left businesses potentially exposed," Pool Re CEO Julian Enoizi said.
Pool Re is a mutual reinsurer set up by the U.K. insurance industry and the U.K. government in 1993. It is member-owned and backed by a U.K. Treasury commitment to support the pool should it ever have insufficient funds to pay a claim.
