This article contains some prudent advice for CISO's and other Officers that are looking to acquire cyber-insurance:
- Cybersecurity risk has increased exponentially due to the changing and complex cyber-threat landscape, particularly ransomware attacks. As a result, cyber-insurance premiums have surged by 50% just in the last year, which could have a significant impact on risk management budgets.
- Most organizations recognize their cybersecurity strategy must change, and cyber insurers that make decisions about coverage using advanced statistical methods play a pivotal role in determining what that change entails.
- to get CFO and board buy-in, CISOs can use the cyber-insurance requirements as metrics to track security goals and correlate their risk register with their insurance premiums. It is a unique opportunity to attach dollar values to cyber investments and push for maximum ROI in clear and persuasive ways.
- It is important not to treat this as a formality and to ensure that information is entirely accurate; insurers are more than willing to decline coverage and even sue if an enterprise falsely claims, for example, that it has MFA protection across all its digital assets. Failure to document preventive measures is nearly as bad as not having those preventive measures in the first place
- Creating and maintaining detailed records, building reporting systems, documenting all relevant business and security processes, and creating tamper-proof data for cyber forensics are all possible with sophisticated cybersecurity tools. The only change here is that CISOs now need to be able to make this cybersecurity posture visible to insurers (and be able to back up their statements).
- Finally, an ugly truth: Organizations are in competition with each other for coverage, and a CISO must be able to prove their organization's cyber maturity is better than the rest. This is especially critical in verticals considered highly vulnerable (like healthcare, financial services, or federal contracting), so it is important to protect that competitive edge. Whether it is full compliance with NIST regulations, control over the software supply chain, or a board with a regimented, proactive plan for cyber events, CISOs should play to their organizations' strengths while being transparent about its vulnerabilities.
- It's vital to get clarity around which cyber-risk factors influence pricing the most and what areas of cyber defense need to improve. Of course, the primary goal is for enterprises to be better protected against cybercrime, ransomware, and breaches by strictly adhering to cyber-defense best practices. By transparently partnering with insurers and auditors, CISOs will be able to make accurate security investments while furthering their organizations' cyber resilience.