Tuesday 02 / July / 2024
Muscat: Ahmed Ali Al Maamar, Executive Vice President of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) emphasised that private and public institutions and individuals are encountering real and enormous risk and challenge in maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of data and data protection and security.
Thus, the role of insurance sector comes to hedge from such threats and losses resulting therefrom through new product which is cyber insurance or electronic insurance.
Al Maamari said that in the Cyber Insurance Workshop organised by the FSA which targeted private and public sector institutions with the aim of introducing cyber insurance and its role in enhancing the efficiency of the institutions’ security.
The workshop further highlighted the importance of the key requirements and needs which would assist in building an integrated insurance system in the Sultanate of Oman to provide insurance coverage for such threats .
The workshop was organised within an awareness campaign launched by the FSA on cyber insurance in the second quarter of this year.
Al Maamari pointed out in the opening speech that cyber insurance represents a response to the needs of private and public institutions and individuals to limit the damage caused by cyber attacks and data and privacy breaches.
He said increased awareness of cyber security and the huge damage resulting from cyber risks make the cyber insurance an inevitable necessity which would contribute to increased growth and demand.
Cyber insurance product is a financial product that enables the enterprises to cover the costs of recovery from breaches and similar incidents.
Al Maamari confirmed that there were questions raised by business sector on the role of cyber insurance in hedging from cyber risks as to whether the insurers would provide fair compensation for the damage of cyber attacks and how to assess the damage soundly.
Also, businesses wanted to know what insurers need with regard to the legislative infrastructure in the country and the electronic system in the private sector to ensure providing appropriate insurance product that contribute to protecting the economy, the businesses and individuals from such complex and revolving risks.
He also said how would the insurers provide adequate solutions at reasonable cost for small and mediums enterprises as the SMEs are mostly unable to tackle such risks in addition to lack of awareness of such risks and other questions that help in building integrated cyber risk systems which require cooperation of the regulators, insurances, businesses and individuals to shape common awareness and understanding of such risks and hedging methods in case of occurrence as well as creating legislative, technological and technical infrastructure and human expertise to deal therewith.
The workshop included two sessions presented by specialists the first on “Enhancing Defenses and Strategies to Respond to Cyber Threats” and the second on “Opportunities and challenges of Cyber Insurance and Digital Risk Management.”
It is noteworthy that the cyber security workshop was organised to build cooperation ties between the various sectors and institutions and enhance the joint efforts to encounter cyber challenges in the insurance and banking sectors and other government sectors related to information and data technology beside security institutions concerned with information and cyber security.
