Samantha Tanner has always been drawn to impossible challenges. A creative problem solver at heart, she thrives on tackling complex puzzles—especially when the stakes are high. As CFC’s chief actuary, she brings this same mindset to the world of insurance, using data, analytics and innovation to solve one of the industry’s biggest challenges: delivering fair, sustainable pricing in an ever-evolving cyber threat landscape.
Here, Samantha shares how she approaches risk assessment, what it takes to stay ahead of emerging threats and why actuarial science is anything but predictable.
Tell us about your background
I’ve always been good at maths, but what really interested me wasn’t just the numbers—it was how they could be applied in a commercial setting, using data to solve real-world problems. That’s what led me into actuarial science early in my career, and I’ve never looked back.
When I was approached about CFC, what really stood out for me was the sheer volume of data CFC has at its disposal and how effectively it’s used to protect policyholders. Often actuaries struggle with a lack of data, with cyber insurance in particular a class where insurers struggle to gather and make sense of data. But at CFC, in addition to the policy data, we have a wealth of claims data, external scanning and enriched risk characteristics to work with, meaning we’re uniquely placed to spot trends and innovate across underwriting, claims and real-time risk management. This combination makes cyber such an exciting frontier, and why I was drawn to CFC in the first place.
What exactly does an actuary do and why is the role so important in insurance?
Actuaries analyze historical data in conjunction with the latest insights and trends to predict future outcomes, helping insurers make informed, risk-based decisions. We take complex, mostly quantitative information—claims trends, historical losses, catastrophe modeling—and translate it into meaningful qualitative insights. One core responsibility is reserving, which calculates how much funds need to be set aside to pay future claims. By identifying patterns and estimating risk, we help insurers manage uncertainty and remain financially stable. Reserving is also used to drive performance management, where we identify parts of our insurance portfolio that we should lean into further or remediate.
At CFC, in addition to the policy data, we have a wealth of claims data, external scanning and enriched risk characteristics to work with, meaning we’re uniquely placed to spot trends and innovate across underwriting, claims and real-time risk management. Samantha Tanner, Chief Actuary
Another key part of the role is pricing—determining how much policyholders should be charged to cover potential claims while keeping the business sustainable. Regulators expect insurers to strike this balance, as underpricing policies could lead to insolvency, ultimately failing customers who rely on insurance as a promise to pay. Ensuring our pricing is both fair and sustainable is fundamental to delivering on that commitment.
What tools and technologies do you use in risk modelling?
Our risk modeling relies on a combination of actuarial and data science techniques to interpret vast amounts of information. We pull insights from multiple sources—application forms, purchased datasets, active scanning tools—and use coding languages like Python to structure and analyze the data. Our team plays a crucial role in refining these models, ensuring we can accurately assess past trends and predict future risks with greater precision.
Being part of a tech-led business like CFC gives us a significant edge. Unlike traditional insurers that often rely on outdated, siloed systems and spreadsheets, we have a clean, fully integrated data ecosystem. Our ability to connect millions of data points, combined with AI-driven actuarial models, allows us to make smarter, faster decisions. In my view, this seamless integration of technology and analytics is absolutely vital in helping us stay ahead in what is a rapidly evolving risk landscape.
How does your role deliver value to clients?
My role delivers value to clients by ensuring our products are both sustainably and competitively priced, leveraging data and actuarial insights to create fair and accurate pricing models. We use real-time data and AI to simplify the quoting process, allowing for one-question quoting instead of long, tedious forms. This means clients receive a price that reflects their risk profile. We also work closely with our proactive cyber and incident response teams to identify and alert businesses to vulnerabilities before they turn into claims, helping clients manage their risks more effectively.
Our ability to connect millions of data points, combined with AI-driven actuarial models, allows us to make smarter, faster decisions. In my view, this seamless integration of technology and analytics is absolutely vital in helping us stay ahead in what is a rapidly evolving risk landscape. Samantha Tanner, Chief Actuary
Beyond pricing, our work directly benefits brokers by providing data-driven insights through dashboards and performance analysis. This helps brokers understand trends in their portfolios, refine their sales strategies and better serve their customers. We also collaborate with underwriters to assess the pricing impact of new policy wordings and product developments, ensuring our coverage remains both innovative and commercially viable. By continuously analyzing macroeconomic trends, industry-specific risks and emerging threats, we help shape sustainable insurance solutions that genuinely protect businesses.
What key trends are impacting the industry?
A key trend reshaping the industry is the push for standardized data collection, especially in the world of cyber where there’s no market standard for assessing and categorizing risk. At CFC, we’re working to change that by integrating claims data with established cyber security frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK. This approach allows us to track how threat actors infiltrate networks, take control and exfiltrate data—mapping the full attack chain. By combining actuarial insights with intelligence from our cyber security team, we can identify early warning signs, such as increased traffic between a client and a known threat actor, and step in before a cyber event escalates into a full-blown claim.
What sets CFC apart is our ability to break down cyber incident costs to a highly granular level beyond just categorizing them into the main buckets of ransom payments, loss of profits, business resumption, forensic investigation and so on. This level of detail helps us refine pricing, improve risk selection, and—most importantly—reduce claims costs by stopping attacks earlier. With our proactive services, we’re able to detect stolen credentials on the dark web, monitor suspicious network activity and run phishing simulations that allow us to disrupt the attack chain before real damage is done. By working across underwriting, actuarial, proactive security and incident response teams, we’re not just insuring cyber risk—we’re actively mitigating it.
What’s your passion outside of CFC?
Outside of work, I love attempting silly, impossible challenges—whether it’s bringing to life elaborate, gravity-defying birthday cakes my children dream up or taking part in adventure races where you’re dropped in an unknown location and have to find your way back.
Really, I enjoy problem-solving and creativity, and if I won the lottery, I’d probably spend my time designing escape rooms. Just like in my role, I thrive on pulling together complex information and finding solutions that make sense.
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