The more personal information any operation uses to transact business — including details collected when accepting payment for services rendered — the more likely that business will be targeted by hackers looking to benefit from gaining access to private data. It follows that the industries most likely to pay relatively high premiums for cyber insurance, according to a recent AdvisorSmith survey of cyber insurers and costs, are those that run on transactional information. The slideshow above illustrates the dozen industries with the highest cyber insurance premiums, according to AdvisorSmith. Cyber premiums are largely determined by risk, Jeff Dunsavage with the Insurance Information institute wrote in a September 2021 blog post. He added that the prognosis for the cyber insurance market may be grim due to the "perfect storm" of risks including:

• Rapid growth in exposure without adequate risk controls;
• Growing sophistication of cyber criminals;
• The cascading effects of cyber risks; and
• A lack of geographic or commercial boundaries.

"Insurers urgently need to reassess all aspects of their cyber risk," A.M. Best said in a June 2021 Best's Market Segment Report. Such assessments should include the carrier's risk appetite, risk controls, modeling, stress testing and pricing. See also:

• A look at the 2022 cyber market
• All I want for Christmas is for businesses to understand cyber risks
• Cyber insurance in 2022: A year for collaboration