From: Business Insurance

RANCHO MIRAGE, California — The exponential growth in technology innovation is driving rising exposures for businesses, leading to greater volatility and uncertainty for cyber insurance buyers, experts say.

Technology is “literally exploding,” said Michael Steep, Stanford, California-based founder and executive director of the disruptive technology program at Stanford University and president of consultancy Transform Innovation Ventures, said during a panel session Tuesday at the Captive Insurance Companies Association 2023 International Conference.

Silicon Valley and startup technology companies globally spent $300 billion on disruptive technology in 2022, creating massive amounts of data for every kind of interconnected device, he said.

Artificial technologies, such as ChatGPT, are also evolving, creating problems for businesses and consumers, he said.

This next wave of technologies will “open up a whole new area of vulnerability for cyberattacks,” Mr. Steep said, noting that bad actors can manipulate information in ways that it can be dispersed in virtually any type of application without adequate protection.

The speed of AI-based attacks is now in the milliseconds, while IT response time to these attacks is “ridiculous” — some 167 to 215 days, he said.