(6 September 2024 – Global) Zurich and Marsh McLennan are pushing for government support to help absorb losses stemming from mounting cyberthreats they view as big of a risk as flooding, earthquakes and terrorist attacks.
There are “limits to the amount of financial loss” the private sector can absorb their new report states, given the potentially huge losses that could be caused by a cyber-attack on critical infrastructure.
Lloyd’s of London estimates that a major cyber-attack on a global payments system could cost the world economy US$3.5 trillion and that it was “too substantial a risk for one sector to face alone”.
“At some point cyber events can potentially become large enough to move outside of the insurance industry and become societal,” said Marsh McLennan Global Cyber Practice Leader Tom Reagan.