Cyber insurance is moving full speed ahead now that re/insurers have concluded a long debate over the definition of a cyber event.

That was the word from Kathleen Reardon, chief executive of Hiscox Re, speaking at the Bermuda Risk Summit at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess & Beach Club.

“This is where it starts to take off,” Ms Reardon said. “With that comes more product evolution.”

She agreed with predictions by firms such as Allianz that cyber insurance could out pace the property and casualty market by 2035. Some forecasts have cyber reaching $37 billion in the next nine years.

“Cyber is evolving,” Ms Reardon said. “Artificial intelligence is exacerbating some of the risk that is out there. We run towards risk, but we do need to control it, aggregate it and keep our company protected from solvency.”

At the conference, John Huff, CEO of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers, said cyber was a market to watch, adding that it could be softening — becoming a buyer’s market with increased competition between insurers.

“Cyber is a product that is more of a protection product versus a traditional indemnification product,” Mr Huff said. “We are not just putting money back into the ceding company, but also providing some expertise.”

When Ariel Re CEO Ryan Mather thinks about cyber, he says he thinks about innovation.

The first cyber policy was written by AIG in 1997.

“Since the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw a massive increase in uptake from cyber and a massive uptick in pricing as well,” Mr Mather said. “It is a very attractive marketplace. The global premium is now more than $50 million from pretty much a standing start.”

Mr Mather said because cyber has been going for so long now it has become commoditised with pricing coming down.

“The way we think about cyber is that it is untried and untested,” he said. “There is premium coming in, and we are attracted to premium, but there is a lot of systemic risk embedded in that.”

All three re/insurers on the panel, including Jerome Halgan, president and chief underwriting officer of Arch Reinsurance Group, saw record profits in 2025.

Arch saw record growth with gross written premiums exceeding $11 billion in 2025, up from $3.5 billion, five years ago.

Mr Mather said Ariel Re had a 47 per cent net combined ratio in 2025 — its fifth best result in 20 years.

He said last year was relatively benign other than the California wildfires in January.

Ms Reardon said that although Hiscox has also had record profits, they were a result of five years of hard work to protect the company for leaner years.

“We have worked vigorously to make the portfolio more resilient, add to our product offering and attract new capital partners,” she said. “When the hard market did come, we were able to skilfully navigate that and deploy more capital over a three-year period, for each of those years in a row. That meant we could step up and support our cedants who are buying more.”

One good year does not make an enduring business, she said.

“Our market is volatile, and those good years do need to help support the tougher ones.”