As cybersecurity insurance goes from a “nice to have” to a “must have,” businesses would do well to explore how their security strategies are integrating with insurance costs. (If you haven’t read our blog on the relationship between the two, check it out here.)
Organizations can no longer just adopt a few security tools and call it a day. You’re not fully protected until you have strong policies and technologies coupled with the right cybersecurity insurance policy that will act as your fallback should you experience a breach. Just like with other forms of insurance, the lower of a risk profile your business has, the lower your insurance premiums will be.
But keeping your cyber insurance costs down might not be as obvious as it is with other types of insurance. Here we’ll dive into a few ways you can keep your costs to a minimum—and strengthen your security posture in the process.
What Makes You a Security Risk?
There are a few factors that go in to assessing your business’s risk.
- How large is your business? The more employees you have, the greater risk you entertain. Each employee is a potentially vulnerable endpoint. From phishing to ransomware, there are many threat types that can make their way in through many devices and people.
- Are you in an industry forced to abide by strict compliance standards? If you’re in finance or healthcare, for example, and you have to abide by HIPAA, PCI DSS, or other regulations, you’re more likely to already have a stronger approach to security. Having to abide by these compliance rules is a boon for lowering your insurance costs.
- Do you process high volumes of sensitive data? If you’re in an industry where you’re constantly dealing with confidential data, you could be seen as a greater risk. However, this factor ties in to the last one: if you can actively demonstrate that you abide by compliance standards to protect that data, that factors in favorably to your risk level.
- How many third parties or outside vendors do you work with? High profile breaches over the last decade have shown that even if you have robust security protocols, your external vendors can severely compromise you. The more third parties you work with, the greater risk you incur.
What Can You Do to Strengthen Your Security Posture and Lower Your Cyber Insurance Costs?
Luckily there are several ways you can demonstrate your commitment to protecting your organization and encourage lower insurance costs.
- Choose a renowned cybersecurity technology vendor. If you have a household name in place in your business, insurance providers will factor in that vendor’s historical security prowess into their estimation of your risk. Microsoft, for example, is globally renowned for its billions of dollars of investments into security tools. Having Microsoft in your arsenal is a good place to start.
- Have clear, well-distributed employee security training. This shows insurance providers—even if you have a large business—that you’re serious about securing all those potential points of exposure. It’s important for all employees to be on the same page about your security policy.
- Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA). This is less of a choice and more of a “must do.” Cybersecurity insurance policy providers require MFA to protect user credentials.
- Consider adopting a Zero Trust architecture. Zero Trust is one of the strongest approaches you can take to your business security, and it’s especially important to consider if you have a remote staff.
- Establish an incident response plan. Insurers will want to see that you have a plan in place if a breach happens in your business. They assume all businesses will experience an attack of some kind at some point, so demonstrating you can properly respond to one will work in your favor.
Have Easier Conversations with Your Cybersecurity Insurance Agent. We Can Help.
Point Alliance helps organizations provide insurance companies with the required security reports from Microsoft 365 that help validate the risk mitigation and security measures that have been put into place to prevent data loss. Get in touch with us today to learn more.
