Accenture's Kenneth Saldanha says "we're at the beginning of a new movement in personal cyberinsurance," as three-fourths of consumers surveyed for an Accenture report said they are receptive to insurers' help in addressing cyberrisk. Meanwhile, Finaria says the cyberinsurance market will see worldwide growth of 21% to reach $9.5 billion in 2021 and likely will hit $20.4 billion by 2025.

The omnibus spending bill approved by Congress makes no significant revisions to appropriations for wildland fire management, but it does include an explanatory statement mentioning the March 12 deadline for five federal agencies to implement remote tracking of wildfire-related resources. The statement also calls for a report on the feasibility of longer contract awards for firefighting aircraft.

Commercial insurance rates are expected to rise 11.6% on average in 2021, an Alera Group survey found. Insurers are working to bring commercial lines back to profitability with the increases, which are forecast to be sharpest in lines including medical malpractice, umbrella and excess liability, auto, property, and directors-and-officers liability, according to the survey.

A Florida State University report explores potential approaches to reducing the policy count of Citizens Property Insurance, Florida's insurer of last resort, and expanding the private market. Steps toward achieving that goal include focusing on mutual diversification, which would involve ranking private insurers based on ability to take on the policies that create tail risk for Citizens, the report says.

The property casualty insurance sector is calling for Oregon and Washington regulators, who want to prohibit insurers' use of credit-based insurance scoring, to offer safeguards against rate increases that can result from "extraordinary life circumstances" that temporarily affect policyholders' credit, APCIA's Mark Sektnan said. Most carriers offer protections for people who lack extensive credit histories, and insurers' proprietary credit-based scoring is an element of a more extensive customer review process, Sektnan said.