AXIS 35 views of cyber risk - Part 2

Amid seemingly accelerated and complex change, there is not always a precedent or, in insurance, a model or algorithm to turn to make sense of the present or to predict the future. This is especially true in cyber risk, which, though data-rich, is still a relatively young risk category. A constant game of cat and mouse between those bad actors—the predators—seeking to disrupt, defraud, or destroy and their prey means the threat must constantly evolve; what the data told us and what we thought we knew about cyber risk in 2019 is not what we see today, though we continue to believe an approach based on learning and, through learning, understanding is the way forward.

It is in this climate that our esteemed colleague John Donald has revisited 35 Views of cyber risk, which he wrote and first published in 2019. What was true then is arguably even more true now, which is that we only improve our understanding and combinative thinking by looking beyond the usual parameters to diverse thinking and new ideas and perspectives.

In this edition, John revisits and reworks some of those earlier perspectives and combines them with new content that leans on ideas and science based in the natural world he crafts into analogies that seek to demystify and explain cyber risk in its many forms. This time the metaphor of the murmuration of starlings gives its name to the book. Here, John extends the idea of taking multiple viewpoints to the complex relationship between the individual and the group. This dynamic, and the opposing forces it creates, remains fundamental to our understanding of cyber risk. We thank John for his inspirational ideas and commitment to bringing deeper understanding and clarity to the shifting cyber risk landscape and its interconnectedness with the world around us.