Brokers have been told they need to get serious about cyber coverage as clients wrestle with the threats.

Speaking as thousands of Brokers were in Manchester for the British Insurance Brokers’ Association’s (Biba) annual conference, Nate Brink, head of broker sales and account management at CyberCube said the market has reached an inflection point when it came to the sale of cyber coverage.

“It is a huge opportunity for the market,” he explained. “The level of cyber insurance penetration within the SME market is still exceedingly low and in Europe 40% of larger enterprises have said they will be buying cyber cover for the first time in the next four years.

However, Brink added hurdles remained for the market despite the increase in awareness from brokers of the threats and the need for clients to be covered.

“We are at an inflection point, and the opportunity remains for brokers which can differentiate themselves and assume  the role of cyber insurance advisers for SMEs,” he explained. “Brokers need to educate themselves on the risks and more importantly the financial implications for their clients if they suffer a cyber-attack without insurance cover.”

He continued: “The key questions brokers will be asked by clients are. What is our financial exposure to the risk of cyber-attack? What limits and how much insurance should I buy. And how much cover are my peers buying?

“If brokers can answer those questions, then they are in a good position to work with their clients to provide cyber cover.”

Brink contained: “The industry does have some work to do. There are concerns over the need for more standard wording and coverage. Brokers are being asked to speak a number of different  languages when it comes to the various policies, and it only adds to the confusion.”

“Much of the talk at the conference has been around cyber risks,” he added. “Currently it is the number one risk for businesses and artificial intelligence is a close second.

“The rate with which AI is being implemented within businesses of all sizes is only going to increase and we are likely to be follow up conversations around AI its risks and its impact.”

Brink added that the conference had seen many brokers which could be described as generalists looking to engage with cyber experts around how best to sell the product.

“There are so many companies either simply not insured or underinsured when it comes to cyber,” he explained. “SMEs need to understand the risks. At present there is a misconception from SMEs that cyber attacks are only made on bigger companies.

“SMEs will have widely used systems in place  and as such if weaknesses are identified then they are open to attack. Kt will all come down to translating the risks into financial impacts.