TY - JOUR

T1 - Affirmative and silent cyber coverage in traditional insurance policies

T2 - Qualitative content analysis of selected insurance products from the German insurance market

AU - Wrede, Dirk

AU - Stegen, Tino

AU - Graf von der Schulenburg, Johann Matthias

PY - 2020/10

Y1 - 2020/10

N2 - This paper examines the design of affirmative and silent coverage in view of the cyber risks in traditional insurance policies for select product lines on the German market. Given the novelty and complexity of the topic and the insufficient coverage in the literature, we use two different sources. We analysed the general insurance terms and conditions of different traditional insurance lines using Mayring’s qualitative content analysis. Also, we conducted interviews with experts from the German insurance industry to evaluate how insurers understand their silent cyber exposures, and what measures they take to deal with this new exposure. The study shows a considerable cyber liability risk potential for insurers in the considered insurance lines. This arises from the affirmative as well as silent cover inclusions and exclusions for cyber risks, which result from imprecise wordings of insurance clauses and insufficient descriptions of the contractually specified scope of the insurance coverage.

AB - This paper examines the design of affirmative and silent coverage in view of the cyber risks in traditional insurance policies for select product lines on the German market. Given the novelty and complexity of the topic and the insufficient coverage in the literature, we use two different sources. We analysed the general insurance terms and conditions of different traditional insurance lines using Mayring’s qualitative content analysis. Also, we conducted interviews with experts from the German insurance industry to evaluate how insurers understand their silent cyber exposures, and what measures they take to deal with this new exposure. The study shows a considerable cyber liability risk potential for insurers in the considered insurance lines. This arises from the affirmative as well as silent cover inclusions and exclusions for cyber risks, which result from imprecise wordings of insurance clauses and insufficient descriptions of the contractually specified scope of the insurance coverage.

KW - Affirmative cyber coverage

KW - Cyber insurance

KW - Cyber risk

KW - Silent cyber

KW - Silent cyber coverage

KW - Traditional insurance policies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090455636&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1057/s41288-020-00183-6

DO - 10.1057/s41288-020-00183-6

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85090455636

VL - 45

SP - 657

EP - 689

JO - Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance: Issues and Practice

JF - Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance: Issues and Practice

SN - 1018-5895

IS - 4

ER -