Hollywood sells cyber apocalypse. The data tells a different story.

For years, cyber war has been framed as the systemic threat that could destabilize the insurance market overnight. But does the evidence support that assumption, or are we pricing a risk that hasn’t materialized at the scale we fear?

In this episode, host Anthony Hess speaks with Tom Johansmeyer, Global Head of Index Classes at Price Forbes Re, and a doctoral researcher examining the intersection of insurance, economic security, and cyber conflict.

Drawing on case studies from NotPetya to large-scale infrastructure outages, Tom challenges how the industry thinks about cyber war exclusions, systemic cyber risk, and catastrophe benchmarks. He argues that many feared scenarios are either bounded in scale or comparable to natural catastrophe events the market already absorbs.

If that’s true, what does it mean for capital allocation, reinsurance structures, quota shares, and pricing discipline? This episode reframes the debate around systemic cyber risk, and explores what a more rational, scalable cyber insurance market could look like.


You’ll learn:

1. Why systemic cyber war risk may be overstated
2. How NotPetya reshaped underwriting psychology
3. What catastrophe benchmarks reveal about cyber scale
4. How fear impacts capital and reinsurance strategy
5. What a healthier cyber insurance market could look like

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Get in touch with Tom Johansmeyer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjohansmeyer/


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About the host Anthony Hess:
Anthony is passionate about cyber insurance. He is the CEO of Asceris, which supports clients to respond to cyber incidents quickly and effectively. Originally from the US, Anthony now lives in Europe with his wife and two children.

Get in touch with Anthony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyhess/ or email: ahess@asceris.com.

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Thanks to our friends at SAWOO for producing this episode with us!

In incident response, if you wipe systems first and ask questions later, you’re deleting the truth.

In this episode, host Anthony Hess sits down with Devon Ackerman, Global Head of Digital Forensics and Incident Response at Cybereason, to unpack what serious DFIR looks like when your audience is regulators, legal counsel, and insurance carriers and brokers. A former FBI Supervisory Special Agent and Senior Forensic Examiner, Devon explains why his team approaches every matter as if it could end up in court, and what that changes in practice.

He breaks down how to scope an incident from the first call, preserve evidence before “fixing” the environment, and pressure-test tool output instead of blindly trusting it. Anthony and Devon also dig into AI and automation in DFIR, the central role of timelines and logging in telling a credible breach story, and why third- and fourth-party access, zero trust, and contracts are now defining systemic cyber risk for boards and insurers alike.


You'll learn:

1. Why “defensible truth” is the real product in high-stakes incident response
2. How forensic-science DFIR changes scoping, evidence preservation, and decision-making
3. Where AI speeds up investigations and where it creates blind spots for junior teams
4. Why timelines and logging shape what carriers, regulators, and boards believe happened
5. How vendor access and contracts drive third- and fourth-party cyber risk at scale

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Get in touch with Devon Ackerman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devonackerman/


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About the host Anthony Hess:
Anthony is passionate about cyber insurance. He is the CEO of Asceris, which supports clients to respond to cyber incidents quickly and effectively. Originally from the US, Anthony now lives in Europe with his wife and two children.

Get in touch with Anthony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyhess/ or email: ahess@asceris.com.

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Thanks to our friends at SAWOO for producing this episode with us!

During incident response, what separates good from great counsel is bedside manner.

In this episode, host Anthony Hess sits down with Josh Mooney, Partner and US Head of Cyber and Data Privacy at Kennedys Law, for a candid look at effective cyber response leadership.

Josh explains why empathy and communication are as critical as legal precision when guiding clients through chaos. He also shares how US courts are reshaping ransomware incentives, why data governance failures attract OCR scrutiny, and how privacy law is edging toward a fifth fundamental right, namely the right not to be tracked.

From the psychology of crisis response to courtroom strategy and compliance realities, Josh reveals how the next decade of cyber risk will test not only systems, but the people behind them.

You’ll learn:

1. Why empathy and trust are strategic tools in breach response
2. How US court rulings are driving ransom payment dilemmas
3. What OCR investigations reveal about weak governance
4. Why data inventory discipline determines breach outcomes
5. How privacy law may soon expand to include a “right not to be tracked”

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Get in touch with Josh Mooney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-mooney-cybersecurity/


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About the host Anthony Hess:
Anthony is passionate about cyber insurance. He is the CEO of Asceris, which supports clients to respond to cyber incidents quickly and effectively. Originally from the US, Anthony now lives in Europe with his wife and two children.

Get in touch with Anthony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyhess/ or email: ahess@asceris.com.

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Thanks to our friends at SAWOO for producing this episode with us!