[Exclusive] Corporate Cyber Insurance Policies Surpass 7,000 Amid Spate of Hacking Incidents...Jump 42% Last Year

Cyber Insurance Direct Premiums Jump 68% Over the Past Five Years

As companies such as SK Telecom, KT, and Coupang incurred enormous social costs from large-scale hacking incidents last year, the number of cyber insurance policies has been surging. Since companies face both financial and reputational losses when personal information is leaked due to cyberattacks, they are turning to insurance as a safety net to prepare for such risks.

According to data titled "Current Status of the Cyber Insurance Market" obtained on the 26th by The Asia Business Daily through the office of Lee Haemin, a member of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee from the Rebuilding Korea Party, the number of corporate cyber insurance contracts reached 7,683 last year, when hacking incidents occurred one after another. This represents a 42% jump from 5,406 contracts a year earlier.

The number of cyber insurance contracts had remained in the 5,000 range since 2021, but surpassed the 7,000 mark for the first time last year, with the growth rate over the past five years reaching 30%. During the same period, direct insurance premiums also surged 68%, from 47.8 billion won to 80.1 billion won. As not only major telecommunications companies but also retailers and card companies have been successively breached by hacking attacks and have had to spend astronomical amounts on damage control and recovery, demand has increased among companies seeking at least a minimum level of protection.

Recently, as various types of cyberattacks such as ransomware and data breaches have increased and concerns over personal information leaks have grown, the risks that companies must shoulder have also expanded. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) making system hacking methods more diverse and sophisticated, and the spread of cloud services and remote work amplifying hacking threats, it has become urgent to establish countermeasures such as cyber insurance.

Lee Haemin of the Rebuilding Korea Party said, "With the increase in personal information leakage incidents, the National Assembly has recently been actively discussing bills such as the introduction of a class action system to strengthen corporate responsibility for infringements on citizens' personal information," adding, "Preventing personal information leakage incidents must be the top priority, but once an incident occurs, companies must make active efforts for damage compensation and other responses so that their security capabilities can be structurally enhanced."