Even if your company has cybersecurity insurance, that doesn’t mean you can avoid taking the necessary precautions to avoid disaster. It’s no secret that, similar to our own healthcare, being diligent with preventative care and a consistent healthy lifestyle protects not only your health but also your wallet from more serious illness, regardless of what kind of insurance you have. Dental care and insurance are in the same boat. You don’t have to brush your teeth just because you have insurance.
Cybersecurity insurance (also known as cyber risk insurance or cyber liability insurance) is becoming increasingly important for businesses in all sectors, particularly those that store financial, personal health, or other client data. Until recently, many businesses believed that this insurance policy was sufficient protection against a data breach. Insurance companies, on the other hand, are not in the business of spending money. They make money and will no longer cover businesses that are causing them to lose money. Or they’ll find a different way to recoup their losses, such as raising premiums and deductibles.
The increase in a remote workforce drew the attention of cyber criminals, and many companies have stated they were not prepared for a data breach caused by the remote workforce.
“Cyber insurance premiums, which now total about $5 billion annually, will increase 20 percent to 30 percent per year on average,” according to a report published by Standard & Poor’s Corp. The majority of this is due to an increase in claim frequency and severity. One of the main reasons for this is that small business cyber investments have not kept pace with the rise of advanced persistent threats.
Businesses must ensure that they have the proper IT infrastructure in place to not only predict and prevent threats, but also to detect and respond to a data breach, ransomware, or other cyber attack. A fully Managed Threat Protection solution, which is a must-have for today’s mobile and remote workforce, can meet this need and more. In addition to providing peace of mind, this protection may result in lower insurance rates as a result of the prevention measures taken.
4 Steps to Combat Rising Costs of Cybersecurity Insurance:
- Implement an employee cybersecurity awareness training program
- Achieve and maintain IT security compliance requirements, which is the starting point, not the end goal of cybersecurity
- Adopt a Zero Trust approach to security
- Close security gaps by engaging a managed security service provider to help predict, prevent, detect, and respond to threats
Cybersecurity insurance is a key part of any business’ future protection against a breach. By predicting and preventing the breach before it happens, and having a plan to detect and respond when one occurs, you can save money and time, as well as reputational harm.
In Summary
Cyber security insurance premiums have risen by 50% year over year in the last two years. Providers can drastically reduce their risk exposure by ensuring that organizations follow even the most basic cybersecurity controls. To be truly protected today, however, you must be able to prevent, detect, and respond to active threats, as well as predict future attacks before they occur.
After a data breach, cyber insurance kicks in, but what happens before that? Investing in people, processes, and technology to prepare and strengthen your cybersecurity posture is a must. Multiple layers of security controls, as well as the right mix of technology and expertise, are required for effective cybersecurity. The good news is that you are not on your own. With a defense-in-depth approach that considers every attack vector and attack surface within your IT infrastructure, CYB3R-X provides powerful and practical cybersecurity. This equates to peace of mind both prior to and following a breach.
