As more and more high-profile cyber attacks are identified,businesses are increasing their investment in cyber insurance tohelp mitigate their risk exposure in the event their data ishacked. According to U.S.-based insurance broker Marshin its latest report, Benchmarking Trends: Cyber Attacks Drive InsurancePurchases for New and Existing Buyers, client spending onstandalone cyber insurance increased 32% for the first half of2015. Pricing for cyber insurance also increased – especially forindustries that have experienced significant cyberlosses. 

Across specific business lines, spending grew significantly.(See Figure 1) Power and utility companies increased theirgrowth rate 100%, nearly doubling their take-up rates for the sameperiod in 2014. Universities and other education-based institutionssaw a growth rate of 155% – a 90% change in their cyber insurancetake-up rates over the previous year. Marsh notes that "schoolsettings are ripe for cyber attacks due to the hefty amount ofstudent and staff personnel information that is stored in a varietyof places." 

Related: Demand for cyber risk insurance market on the rise