INTERVIEW: QBE Head Stresses Importance of Cyber Insurance

Tokyo, Nov. 13 (Jiji Press)–Amid a rise in cybersecurity risks, the head of Australia’s QBE Insurance Group Ltd. on Thursday emphasized the need for cyber insurance. Group CEO Andrew Horton said that cybersecurity risks have “dramatically changed” over the past 20 years or so, as cyberattacks that started as “data breaches” have shifted to something “stopping companies doing business.” In Japan, food and beverage giant Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. has not recovered from a system glitch caused by a cyberattack in late September. Office and household goods seller Askul Corp. is still reeling from the impact of a cyberattack last month. “It’s impossible for any company to completely mitigate the risk of having a cyber incident,” Horton said in an interview with Jiji Press in Tokyo. “I’m a great believer that every company should buy cyber insurance because they can’t stop the incident from happening.” “Over the past few years, we’ve been growing our cyber business,” Horton said. Established in 1886, QBE Insurance has bases in 26 locations around the world. In Japan, the company offers reinsurance, or insurance for insurance companies to allow them to better deal with a large-scale disaster or incident. Being a country living alongside earthquake risks, Japan is believed to have a higher likelihood of significant insurance payouts stemming from serious natural disasters. Horton said that he has always liked the Japanese market from a reinsurance point of view “because it’s very relationship-based.” “You can have very long-term relationships, and then when a major catastrophe happens, those relationships endure through the catastrophes and continue after that,” he said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]