In the early days of cyber liability insurance, carriers were much more relaxed about writing policies, and they lost a lot of money because of it.
Not that we feel bad for billion-dollar insurance carriers, but they didn’t have a good understanding of the risks involved or the parameters involved in managing security requirements of their insured.
Carriers have finally caught on to the real risk and cost and have begun raising their security requirements of their insured. For instance, to get a cyber policy today you will have to fill out a questionnaire and provide a detailed explanation of all your security tools and processes. These questionnaires need to show that a core set of security controls have been established. If you’re missing any of these five controls, your application may get rejected.
As a friendly disclaimer, we’re not insurance experts so be sure to consult with your insurance agent before making a decision. But here’s what we DO know about five specific requirements to protect your business with cyber-liability insurance.
Why cyber-liability insurance
Cyber-insurance policies provide a safety net in the event of a cyber incident, helping you recover and mitigate financial and operational damage.
But why are these policies crucial? How do they fit into the broader picture of cybersecurity awareness? And where do BDR and the cloud fit into this equation?
First, cyber-liability policies offer peace of mind.
It’s not a matter of “if” but “when” a cyber incident will occur inside your business. Knowing that you have insurance coverage can alleviate the anxiety associated with this inevitability. It allows you to focus on growth and innovation without constantly worrying about the potential financial fallout of a cyberattack.
Second, these policies can be a lifeline when disaster strikes.
In the aftermath of an incident, the costs can quickly escalate. Cyber-insurance covers expenses related to data recovery, legal fees, customer notifications, and even public relations (PR) efforts to repair your business and your brand. Without such coverage, these costs could cripple your business, especially smaller ones with limited resources.
Third, you must understand that even the best security measures can’t guarantee absolute protection.
Cybercriminals are experts at exploiting vulnerabilities. Anyone can fall victim. It’s not a matter of incompetence, it’s a matter of the evolving threats. Cyber-insurance liability policies are not a sign of distrust but rather a responsible step towards protecting your business and, by extension, those who rely on it.
Here are four requirements or controls you must have in place to obtain cyber-liability insurance, as well as keep your data backed up and safe.
You must have multi-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) protects sensitive data by requiring your users to verify their identity using multiple factors. Common forms of MFA require users to provide passwords, fingerprints, or other biometric identifiers. Other forms of MFA can also be used, such as a physical token and a knowledge-based factor (such as a PIN). By requiring MFA, companies can help ensure that only authorized individuals can access sensitive data. If you don’t have this properly implemented, you may not get your payout from your insurance provider so be sure to validate and test your MFA and backup process to ensure insurance compliance.
Security awareness training and testing
To qualify for cyber-liability insurance, businesses must undergo security awareness training and testing. This ensures employees are current on security threats and procedures and will reduce your risk of becoming a victim of a cyber-attack. By conducting regular testing, you’re instilling a baseline level of vigilance in your team towards suspicious emails because no one wants to fail a test phishing email and be enrolled in more training. You also need to be testing your backup and disaster recovery process to ensure that when it does happen, your data is safe, secure, and accessible.
Separate backups and a BDR process that’s immutable
Many IT professionals believe a single data backup is enough to protect you from potential cyberattacks. This just isn’t the case. To be fully protected, you need a backup process that focuses on backups that are deletion-proof. That’s right, I said they can’t be deleted. Immutability is the concept where we maintain and protect your data from being tampered with, which guarantees the recovery of your data by finding the latest, clean backup you have on record. This process makes it impossible to delete your backups which means your data is even safer than before. Cyber-liability insurance policies require certain storage and backup processes to be in place and we provide that for you, and more.
Managing your vulnerabilities
Vulnerability management is where we use tools that detect, classify, repair, and mitigate exposures through a continuous process. It never stops. The reason this continuous process is important is because vulnerabilities allow cyber-criminals to exploit unauthorized access to sensitive data, applications, and systems. By managing your network and monitoring your infrastructure, it helps businesses identify vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.
Remember, cybersecurity isn’t just about protecting data. It’s about protecting the livelihoods and trust of those who depend on your business.
We care about you, your business, your cybersecurity process, and your backup process.
Contact Twin Networks today to learn more about how we can help.
