Aon CEO sees cyber losses more than double

Aon CEO Gregory Case expects new regulation to more than double reported cyber losses.

In 2017, reported cyber losses were at around $450 billion compared to $3 billion in premium, Case said during the broker’s first quarter 2018 results conference call. The losses were largely US-based, but that might change in future, Case suggested.

“When you think about the adoption of GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] and the data requirements in Europe which literally kicked in this month, the reported requirements go up, which means the $450 billion is going to go into something that's closer to $1 trillion,” Case said.

The GDPR will be enforced in Europe from May 25 and introduces penalties for breaches of up to 4 percent of annual global turnover.

“Virtually every client we talk to is addressing this question and it's a question of sort of at the board level, at the CEO level but also down on the operations of all of our clients' businesses,” Case added.

Case sees substantial opportunity for Aon in the cyber area and noted that the company is investing in content and insight to increase capabilities in this field.

In November 2016, Aon for example completed the acquisition of risk management firm Stroz Friedberg, expanding its cyber risk management and response solutions. In April 2018 the two companies launched a holistic solution for customers that includes hardware-level security protection, comprehensive risk assessment and remediation, rapid incident response, and options for enhanced cyber insurance coverage.

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