Even as the cyber insurance premium volume has skyrocketed, many insurers still struggle to adequately assess cyber exposures and, even worse, to provide effective mitigation. Cyber insurers, by and large, focus on reacting to cyber losses. They can improve in multiple areas, including:

Cyber risk assessment. Questionnaires and supplemental underwriting applications provide point-in-time snapshots of an organization's perceived cyber exposure. Insurers need a clearer, ongoing view into an insured's cyber exposures.
Aligning coverage to actual exposures. Once an underwriter sees the full, high-resolution picture of cyber exposure, they can align coverage accordingly. This can eliminate coverage gaps, make specific coverage clearer, and reduce losses for the insurer and insured. It also builds trust because the buyer and broker can have confidence that the policy will respond.
Loss prevention and mitigation. The most challenging, yet also valuable, part of a cyber insurance relationship is preventing cyber losses in the first place. Cybersecurity is a highly specialized field that is constantly innovating to keep pace with the sophistication and complexities of cybercrime. Most insurers rely on third parties to provide cybersecurity services because those are not a core competency for the insurer. However, combining cybersecurity and cyber insurance is a powerful way to mitigate cyber risk and make coverage better.

A secure approach is simply a better way to underwrite cyber risks. It avoids the cyclicality that makes brokers' and insurance buyers' lives more challenging, and it's a path to sustainability and coverage certainty. Integrating the appropriate cybersecurity resources into the underwriting process is a natural next step.

Special Reports /

Improving cyber insurance doesn't have to be hard

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