December 2021

General Insurance Research Update

By Scott Lennox

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The General Insurance Research Committee continues to meet monthly to identify relevant research topics and potential partnering organizations with the goal of furthering the SOA’s activities in general insurance. In addition, the committee is dedicated to providing SOA members with results that will help them in their day-to-day activities. The committee welcomes ideas for consideration and is seeking additional members. If you are interested in either submitting ideas or becoming a member, please contact Scott Lennox, SOA staff fellow, at slennox@soa.org.

The following general insurance research project has been completed and is published on the SOA general insurance research page:

  • Modeling and Pricing Cybersecurity Risks in Fog Computing Based IoT Architectures—This paper pertains to the analysis of the cybersecurity risk inherent in the fog computing technology, which has been intensively deployed in assorted Internet of Things (IoT) applications. To this end, a structural model is established to describe the risk propagation mechanism in a fog network. The authors propose an interval approximation method to quantify the compromise frequencies for the network’s elements, and under a smart home application, the compromise probabilities are computed explicitly. Applications of proposed models in the context of cyber insurance pricing are thoroughly explored.
  • Telematics Car Driving Data Analytics—With the advancements of telematics technology, insurers can collect detailed car driving information. The aim of this project has three aspects: (1) providing a comprehensive literature review on telematics car driving data analytics; (2) developing various visual tools and a data cleaning procedure for telematics data; and (3) extracting risk factors from individual trips and improving classic classification ratemaking models with those risk factors.
  • The Potential Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Medical Malpractice Claims from Diagnostic Errors in Radiology in New York—This report provides an exploration of the potential impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on medical malpractice claims, with a focus on one specialty (radiology) and one state (New York). The discussions in this report are targeted to actuaries who are interested in developing a method to quantify the potential impact of AI to their own medical malpractice portfolio or to their own work.

The General Insurance Research Committee is currently finalizing details for various submissions for research funding. Once the projects commence, the SOA will be seeking individuals to join volunteer project oversight groups (POG) to help guide and oversee each project. Each POG seeks four to seven volunteers who may be FSAs, ASAs, or non-members with backgrounds in the topic. Volunteers are expected to participate in periodic, hour-long conference calls (a total of five to 10 calls expected over the course of a project) to review material and provide guidance. Research projects provide a way for volunteers to network, build upon their experience in the field, and help support the SOA’s research efforts. If you have questions about the research projects listed above, contact Scott Lennox, SOA staff fellow, at slennox@soa.org. If you would like to volunteer, please review the current open volunteer positions on the Volunteer Opportunities Database.


Scott Lennox, FSA, FCIA, FCAS, is a staff fellow for the Society of Actuaries. He can be contacted at slennox@soa.org.