The Ins and Outs of Cybersecurity Insurance
As the number of applications, devices, etc., increases, an organization becomes more vulnerable to attacks. Just like businesses insure against problems, natural disasters and physical risks, they should consider coverage for cyber threats as well.
What is Cybersecurity Insurance?
Cyber insurance plans can cover a broad range of cyber risk losses that may unexpectedly arise from cyberattacks, including:
- Paying a ransom to retrieve stolen data
- Replacing physically damaged hardware
- Covering business losses due to downtime
Some cyber insurance solutions also cover crisis management costs such as hiring an attorney, performing forensic analyses, notifying clients of a breach and credit monitoring.
What are the Qualification Standards?
Insurance qualification standards vary depending on the industry and the size of the organization. Typically, providers will look at a company’s internal controls to determine whether they want to offer coverage. Like many other forms of insurance, the better controls your company has in place, the better rates you will receive. Examples of cybersecurity controls include:
- Multifactor Authentication (MFA)
- Data encryption and backup
- Continuous vulnerability testing and remediation
- Employee security awareness training
- Patch management
- Anti-malware defenses
- Wireless device control
As technology and the threat landscape evolve, businesses must adapt their controls and processes to minimize liability and maintain insurance coverage.
Is Your Business Protected?
Although cybersecurity insurance is a nice safety net, most companies never want to use it. Studies show that many small and medium-size businesses won’t recover from a data breach, and those that do will have to overcome severe setbacks.
Organizations need to determine whether they have the breadth of knowledge necessary to implement their own controls or whether they can acquire the right internal expertise. If the answer to both is “no,” outsourcing to an MSP is the right move. Contact Yeo & Yeo Technology to learn about our managed services.
Information used in this article was provided by our partners at SentinelOne.