Full Capacity: Cyber threats zero in on Asia Pacific   

April 18 2026 by

Welcome to Full Capacity, a weekly briefing on all the most important developments of the past week with a personal take on the news from our editor-in-chief, Mithun Varkey, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.   

First reported.  Former Gallagher Re Asia Pacific head Mark O’Brien has joined MGA XS Global Asia Pacific as a treaty underwriter. O’Brien has joined the MGA in London and will write treaty reinsurance from Asia Pacific, he confirmed to InsuranceAsia News. 

Focus Australia. Sompo has expanded its operations in Australia with the recruitment of nine underwriters across its offices in Sydney and Melbourne. It has taken a team of underwriters from Everest, which had shut its office this year. 

Reinforcement. India and South Korea are moving to shore up marine insurance capacity as disruption around the Strait of Hormuz drags on. 

New Delhi is setting up a US$100 million marine reinsurance pool – the Bharat Marine Pool – led by GIC Re and New India Assurance, to provide war risk cover for its shipping sector. 

In South Korea, Korean Re is weighing support for insurers covering vessels rerouting away from the conflict zone. With the strait effectively blocked, some shippers are reportedly deploying follow-up vessels to offload cargo and move it via alternative routes. 

Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service estimates potential insurance losses at around US$1.14 billion, with Samsung Fire & Marine, KB Insurance and Hyundai Marine & Fire expected to bear the largest share. 

Testing limits. A surge in hyperscale data centre investment could generate up to US$10 billion in new premiums in 2026 – but demand is set to outstrip capacity, leaving a multibillion-dollar protection gap, according to S&P Global Ratings. 

The agency estimates the global data centre asset base at over US$2 trillion, spanning roughly 11,000 facilities. 

Yet the scale of the projects is testing the limits of the insurance market. S&P notes that some hyperscale builds carry total insurable values of US$10-30 billion for construction alone. 

Diversification play. Taiping Re is moving to further diversify its portfolio beyond property cat amid accelerating market softening, while doubling down on Hong Kong. 

The reinsurer is developing new catastrophe models and exploring additional insurance-linked securities offerings, CEO Sheldon Yu told InsuranceAsia News in an exclusive video interview. 

Asia in cybercriminals’ crosshairs

We hosted our first cyber insurance summit in Hong Kong this week – and if the turnout was anything to go by, the market’s appetite for cyber remains undiminished. 

The room was full, the discussions sharp. For carriers and brokers, it continues to be one of the region’s most important growth lines, while for risk managers, cyber risk is still firmly at the top of the agenda. 

But the market tells a more complicated story. 

Pricing remains soft and continues to soften. Underwriters are chasing targets with increasing aggression, and competition is intense.  

The focus, as one underwriter put it, is on finding new markets and new opportunities.  

The middle market is one obvious frontier, while Japan is attracting growing attention, particularly for business interruption cover in the wake of the Asahi breach. 

What is also striking about the lay of the cyber market in Asia is that the threat landscape is deteriorating. 

Asia Pacific is seeing more attacks, more breaches, and more sophisticated threat actors. 

As a cyber incident response specialist put it, threat actors are behaving exactly like other businesses chasing growth – they’re following the money. And right now, that means Asia. 

What is also notable about cyber incidents in Asia is the growth in ransomware events. 

According to data from cyber security consultancy S-RM, ransomware accounted for 64% of all incidents it responded to in Asia Pacific, considerably higher than its global average of 45%.  

Qilin was the most active ransomware group targeting Asia-based organisations in 2025, with a total of 1,153 publicly disclosed victims, 9% of which were in Asia. 

S-RM also noted the emergence of several new ransomware groups in 2025 – such as Nightspire, Dire Wolf and Gentlemen – for which Asian companies accounted for a disproportionately large share of victims. 

For threat actors, this seems like less of a marginal shift and more of a strategic pivot. 

People moves

Berkley Re Asia Pacific has appointed for Allianz Re regional CEO Kenrick Law as head of underwriting and branch manager. 

Marsh has tapped Didier Bélot as the head of industry in Singapore. 

Sompo has named Olivia Clark as head of aviation for APAC 

Do check out our weekly people move round-up  to stay up to speed on the most important appointments in the region.    

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