… AS CARRIERS ASK FOR AUTHORITIES’ HACK DATA

National authorities must give insurers data on cyber attacks to help them develop better products, an industry lobby group has said. Trade federation Insurance Europe said lack of data was the main challenge for insurers seeking to expand the cyber insurance market. Michaela Koller, director-general of the lobby group, urged authorities to hand over data generated by two incoming pieces of European legislation – the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems – to the insurance industry in an anonymised form to help them protect society against cyber perils. The GDPR forces affected institutions to report cyber incidents swiftly and imposes penalties for non-compliance of up to €20m ($24.4m) or 4% of annual turnover. Total premiums in cyber insurance are predicted to hit $10bn by 2020, up from $3.5bn in 2016.