By Lewis Nibbelin, Contributing Writer, Triple-I
Economic shifts, geopolitical uncertainties, cybersecurity trends, and mounting climate perils have created an increasingly severe and interconnected risk crisis, according to participants in a members-only Triple-I webinar.
In an environment constrained, for instance, by frequent natural disasters and rising replacement costs, risks no longer develop in isolation. They collide with and compound each other. Their combined impact exceeds the sum of individual risks’ effects. Such interdependence complicates identifying, let alone mitigating, the forces underpinning a specific risk.
“Under this new system that’s emerging, risk can propagate very rapidly through a host of otherwise disconnected networks,” TradeSecure president and cofounder Scott Jones told webinar host Michel Léonard, Triple-I’s Chief Economist and Data Scientist. “This new reality fundamentally challenges the core principles that insurance has relied on for centuries.”
Jones emphasized the growing unpredictability of risk on a global scale, particularly as nations impose export controls, sanctions, investment restrictions, and tariffs for purposes like economic competition. Companies with global footprints may struggle to ascertain these interwoven, sometimes competing regulations, creating compliance concerns and potentially exacerbating supply-chain disruptions.
With the frequency and severity of U.S. cyber claims on the rise, cyberattacks also carry substantial transnational implications. Sophisticated ransomware encounters can exploit businesses of all sizes, propelling privacy liability claims and related third-party litigation.
TradeSecure vice president and cofounder Michael Beck explained how the almost universal accessibility of malware – harnessed by criminal syndicates, activist groups, or even lone hackers – presents “a new class of systemic non-physical disruption” that could undermine “the entire system’s liquidity and stability.”
“A coordinated non-state cyberattack wouldn’t just steal money – it could stop the flow of money, causing many transaction failures and possibly triggering a wave of claims far beyond what traditional cyber policies are designed to handle,” Beck said.
Though insurers as well as business owners and consumers consider cyber incidents a chief risk concern, personal cyber take-up rates remain low, with the broader cyber insurance market facing its third consecutive year of declining rates. Misunderstandings surrounding cyber risk and benefits of coverage fuel this discrepancy, revealing a gap between agent perceptions of product value and that of their customers.
Learn More:
2025 Cat Losses to Date Are 2nd-Costliest Since Records Have Been Kept
JIF 2025: U.S. Policy Changes and Uncertainty Imperil Insurance Affordability
Tariff Uncertainty May Strain Insurance Markets, Challenge Affordability
How Tariffs Affect P&C Insurance Prospects
Calls for Insurance-Price Legislation Would Hurt Policyholders, Not Help
Nonprofit to Rescue NOAA Billion-Dollar Dataset
Russia Quake Highlights Unpredictability of Natural Catastrophes
US Cyber Claims Surge While Global Rates Decline: Chubb
Personal Cyber Risk Is Up; Why Isn’t Adoption of Personal Cyber Coverage?