Munich Re Sees the Global Cyber Insurance Market at Nearly $15 Billion in 2025 and Around $28 Billion by 2030, While Nearly Nine in Ten Executives Say They Are Not Adequately Protected

Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurers, has set out its view of the global cyber insurance market in two 2026 publications: a trends report published on March 25 and the fourth edition of its Global Cyber Risk and Insurance Survey, published on April 22. Together they give a picture of a market that has grown quickly, has slowed lately and is expected to double by the end of the decade. The figures below are Munich Re's own estimates, and both pages contain only headline numbers, with detailed survey results held in the full report that was not reviewed for this article.

Market size and growth

Munich Re estimates that the global cyber insurance market reached nearly $15 billion in premiums in 2025. It says premium growth has slowed over the past three years after what it calls an exceptionally steep rise. It projects global premium volume of around $28 billion by 2030, which it describes as implying average annual growth of 15% from 2020 to 2030. Using simple arithmetic on the two market-size figures, growth from $15 billion to $28 billion over five years would be roughly 13% a year, which is not directly comparable with the 15% quoted because that average is stated from 2020. The pages reviewed contain no figure for premium rates, so they do not show whether prices are rising or falling.

The survey

The Global Cyber Risk and Insurance Survey 2026 is the fourth edition and draws on responses from more than 9,500 people in 20 countries, covering all industries and company sizes. Its topics are technology dependencies, threat patterns, cyber risk awareness and the role of cyber insurance. The page says decision-makers widely see cyber resilience as a strategic corporate priority. Thomas Blunck, chief executive of the reinsurance business, said companies need to place the highest priority on resilience and protection, and called cyber insurance proven, relevant and ready to expand.

What drives claims

The trends report gives a claims perspective. It says the main drivers of insured losses are ransomware, data breaches, business email compromise and distributed denial-of-service attacks. First-party claims, meaning those for the policyholder's own losses, make up 62% of Munich Re's actively managed claims, and business interruption, privacy liability and incident response drive most reimbursements. Most incidents and claims involve micro-companies and small and medium-sized enterprises, even though public attention focuses on large corporations. Malicious and non-malicious loss events run at about three to one overall, and mid-sized and large companies report a higher share of non-malicious events, especially in information technology, healthcare and finance. Non-malicious claims, often from human error, flawed software or pixel litigation, are growing.

Threat trends

On geopolitics, about 64% of organisations expect to be targeted by geopolitically motivated attacks, according to the World Economic Forum figure cited by Munich Re, and defence, energy, finance and telecoms face the highest risk. On supply chains, over two-thirds of large organisations reported at least one third-party cyber incident in the past twelve months, and impersonation of suppliers and tampering with software supply chains are expected to grow. Ransomware-as-a-service lowers the barriers to entry for criminals, and deepfakes, voice clones and infostealers are rising.

Munich Re expects agentic AI, meaning AI systems that act toward goals with limited human input, to affect attack frequency more than severity in the near term. It also flags prompt injection and data poisoning as risks to AI systems themselves. It notes that more than 4.7 million industrial robots were operating in 2024, with over 500,000 new installations a year, as an example of physical AI that creates new exposures. The report projects global cybercrime costs of US$14 trillion in 2028.

Protection gap

In the survey, 23% of executives expect AI to hurt their businesses, 66% expect a positive impact and 57% trust companies that use AI. Nearly nine in ten C-level respondents say they do not feel adequately protected against attacks, which Munich Re calls a signal for insurers to step up. It says most cyber risks remain uninsured, even though they are insurable. For comparison, natural hazards caused US$224 billion in losses in 2025, of which US$108 billion, or 48%, was insured. The comparison suggests that the protection gap in cyber is wider than in natural catastrophe.

Reading the figures together

Several of Munich Re's figures point in the same direction. The market is described as growing, but more slowly than in the steep-rise years. The claims data show that small firms generate most incidents, which fits with the survey finding that many executives feel unprotected. And the statement that most cyber risks remain uninsured, though insurable, frames the growth projection as an opportunity for insurers as well as a forecast. For buyers, the combination suggests that cover is available but that take-up, and the quality of the cover chosen, vary widely. For readers evaluating projections, it is useful to remember that a forecast of $28 billion by 2030 depends on assumptions about attack trends, pricing and regulation that the pages do not set out.

Limits

The pages contain no pricing data and no regulatory details, so the report cannot say how rates are moving. Munich Re is a reinsurer with a commercial interest in a growing cyber market, which is worth bearing in mind when reading projections. This article summarises company publications and is general information, not insurance advice.