The cyber landscape is constantly evolving, and insurance premiums are getting more expensive and more difficult to obtain as a result. Research shows that businesses who end up with insufficient coverage or no policy altogether are set to double in the next 12 to 18 months. This is due to a combination of more stringent global regulation and increasing threat volumes. As a result, looking at your company’s security will become even more crucial for organisations who want to have the best chance of receiving a good insurance policy at a fair price.
This isn’t a reason for businesses to panic. While the answer for many will be to simply put in place the requisite security controls to reduce cyber risk, and therefore qualify for lower premiums, there are numerous other ways businesses can ensure they get a fair policy. Take a look below at some of the ways you can ensure you don’t get hit by insurance hikes.
Less means more…but not in the way you think
If you don’t have enough security established, then your insurance premiums will end up costing you more. To pay less long-term, put multiple, sophisticated layers of security in place that show your insurance company the effort you are making to reduce the chance of an attack.
This entails demonstrating to insurers that multiple layers of security are in place. There should be measures taken to protect your business’s cloud applications and on-premises applications, security awareness training must be given to all employees, and we recommend putting privileged access management in motion, especially for sensitive data.
If you can prove to your insurance company you are taking the necessary steps by spending money on your protection now, then you will reap the rewards later down the line.
Keep track to pay less
According to research from Panaseer, 87% of insurers want a consistent approach to analysing cyber risks, and 89% want direct access to customer security metrics and measures proving the status of security controls. By proving that your security is working effectively, for example by showing insurers a decrease in attacks since the security frameworks were put in place, the insurance company is more likely to give you a fair policy.
If there aren’t the people on hand to track this, companies should consider investing in automated tracking. This will ensure risk assessments are up to date and will provide insurance companies with the most up to date information to make an informed decision.
Preparing to fail
The severity and cost of a cyberattack depends on how an organisation’s internal and external security providers react to it. Every employee in a company contributes to its defence. Therefore, everyone must receive the correct awareness training and must be aware of what to do if anything suspicious occurs.
To reduce the damage from an attack, both employees and IT teams must have simple-to-follow incident response policies in place. By showing your insurance company these exist, they will know you are prepared for an incident if it does happen, meaning the fall-out from it should be reduced.
You can’t know it all… bring in the experts
Cybersecurity should be managed by experts. It’s often only large companies who have the means to put the correct measures in place internally. Companies without the resources internally should therefore consider hiring an external expert to put the correct security in place. These external businesses have the qualified people needed to advise businesses of all sizes on how to strengthen their cyber protection strategy and deal with cyber insurance providers when it’s time for renewal.
Having a solid cyber security infrastructure in place is now becoming a core business requirement, and insurance companies expect this infrastructure to be in place. By proving to them it is, your business is more likely to get a cheaper, and better, insurance policy. Speak to our security team here at Babble if you want to learn more about how we can protect your cyber security and reduce your insurance premiums.