Cyber Young Brokers Academy Roundup

Starting out in insurance is hard enough with all its complexity and attachment to acronyms. But if you think insurance is hard to get your head around, spare a thought for those of us managing the fascinating but risky world of Cyber Insurance.

If you are just beginning your career within Cyber, the first few weeks will have you dazzled by the threat landscape, the need for constant innovation and the enormous opportunities for growth that lie ahead.

But dazzling can quickly turn into dizzying. With so much change taking place and with so much to learn, these early months can be challenging - and potentially overwhelming - times. You try your best to absorb all the information that’s being thrown at you, but that is easier said than done when you may have never heard of the terminology and acronyms that everyone is using. And even when you think you have deciphered one of them, it turns out that it can mean several things – ‘BI’ can refer to Business Interruption but also Bodily Injury? And what on earth is a ‘SOC’, ‘SIEM’ or even a ‘PAM’?

Cyber Insurance can be intimidating but once you get to grips with it, you will see that it’s one of the most exciting areas of insurance although, of course, I may be biased. But like any specialty, it takes time to reach expert status and trust me when I say that even the most effective Cyber underwriters today went through a period of feeling lost.

I have been (and continue to be at times) one of those lost underwriters but I have been incredibly privileged to start my career surrounded by so many incredible colleagues from a range of different departments. From underwriting and cyber security, to actuarial and claims, I will be forever grateful for the time these individuals have spent explaining (and sometimes re-explaining!) even the simplest concepts to me. It provided me with a safe space to learn, where all my naive questions could be asked without fear.

It is this environment and opportunity that we are trying to replicate through our Young Broker Academy (YBA) webinars. We want to provide new joiners to the industry with that same safe space where they can ask everything and anything without fear of judgement or censure.

Our sessions start with the basics to act as the foundational building blocks, where we start by considering what cyber risk is exactly, demystify threats and vulnerabilities, explore their potential consequences, and provide an overview of the different threat actors and their motivations. We then branch out into more advanced or specific topics. The next session, for example, focuses on ‘Supply Chain Risk’ … very topical given that 2024 has already seen several mini catastrophe-style supply chain events.

A common theme throughout the sessions is explaining how insurers view and analyse risk. We want to draw back the curtain on our underwriting processes to give you as much insight as we can into how your clients’ risks are rated and what we need from you to obtain the best cover, at the best price, and as efficiently as we can.

We have deliberately designed these sessions to be only 20 minutes long, and they can be joined live or afterwards via the recording. This means that you can access the content in a way and at a time that suits you, wherever you are in the world. And crucially, we make these sessions as informal and interactive as we can. This isn’t meant to be lecture, more of a dialogue, and we encourage everyone who attends to take the opportunity to ask questions, share their views and make the most of the experience in front of them.

We have held eight Cyber sessions so far and have another two in the pipeline. You can follow the TMHCC Cyber Young Brokers Academy on LinkedIn using the hashtag: YBA_Cyber; and you can register and join the webinars for free. If you have any questions or need any further details around the sessions or how to register, please feel free to get in touch with me or any other member of the TMHCC Cyber team.

Cyber risks threaten nearly every aspect of our economy and society, so whatever your role, we are all in this Cyber game together and it is that sense of collaboration that underpins every webinar we hold. We truly hope that this initiative gives the next generation of Cyber brokers all the skills and confidence they need to build a successful career and in return, we hope to gain a better understanding of the world that our brokers are operating in. It is through these reciprocal relationships that together, we will build an effective Cyber market for the long term.