Frequency and Severity of Large Cyber Claims Continue to Climb

As Allianz Commercial has warned in its annual cyber risk outlook, the frequency of large cyber claims in the first six months of 2024 was up 14% while severity increased by 17%. “The growing significance of data breach losses among cyber insurance claims is driven by a number of notable trends,” explained Michael Daum, global head of cyber claims at Allianz Commercial. At the same time, the evolving regulatory and legal environment has brought an uptick in so-called ‘non-attack’ data privacy-related class action litigation, resulting from incidents such as wrongful collection and processing of personal data – the share of these claims has tripled in value in two years alone.” ‘Non-attack’ claims increase as privacy litigation ramps up The rise in ‘non-attack’ data privacy claims is the consequence of developments in technology, the growing commercial value of personal data and a developing regulatory and legal landscape. “We are seeing more data privacy breach claims in the U.S. where there is a growing trend for class-action litigation against large U.S. and international corporations related to privacy violations, such as around consent and data usage,” said Daum.