The consortium will provide up to USD 50 million of per-program capacity, offering tailored, event-based coverage to cyber insurers worldwide. Through CyberShock, carriers can benefit from greater certainty of coverage for cyber incidents, including service supply chain events, cyber propagation events, hardware and software supply chain events, and catalytic cyber events.

CyberShock marks an industry-first initiative led by Ariel Re, a global underwriter of reinsurance products operating in Bermuda, London, and Hong Kong through its Lloyd’s platform, and Hiscox Re & ILS, the reinsurance and insurance-linked securities arm of international insurer Hiscox.

Daniel Carr, Head of Cyber at Ariel Re, commented, saying: “Cyber catastrophe risk continues to be a major concern for the (re)insurance market, with a lack of scaled, sustainable solutions for systemic risk holding back growth in the market. Ariel Re is an established market for property catastrophe risk and has taken a lead role in the development of Cyber Catastrophe reinsurance products in recent years – increasing our reach in this area made sense.

He continued: “We wanted to find another leading reinsurance market to support engagement and involvement across the wider market, and Hiscox Re & ILS was the perfect partner given their long-standing cyber expertise.”

Matthew Wilken, Chief Underwriting Officer at Hiscox Re & ILS, said: “We are pleased to be partnering with Ariel Re, who share our goal to materially improve the existing market approach to cyber catastrophes.”

He added: “Against a backdrop of both a lack of clarity around cyber event definitions and meaningful capacity in the cyber reinsurance marketplace, we believe the CyberShock consortium can act as a positive catalyst for the market.”