Lloyd’s of London insurer Beazley has launched the first cyber catastrophe bond, opening up one of the fastest-growing areas of the underwriting industry to investors as companies and governments seek to shield themselves from ransomware strikes. The $45m private bond will pay out to Beazley if total claims from a cyber attack on its clients exceed $300m — a structure intended to give some protection to the insurer’s balance sheet from “remote probability catastrophe and systemic events”.