The Key Cyber Insurance Requirements
Who needs Cyber Insurance?
Cyber insurance is necessary for a wide range of companies, regardless of their size or industry. While larger enterprises are often targeted by hackers due to their higher value, small and medium businesses with limited IT security can also be appealing targets for malicious actors. Industries like technology and financial services face higher risks, but in today's digital landscape, any company dealing with digital information can benefit from insurance and risk management against cyber threats.
For determining your premium, coverage limits, and eligibility for cyber insurance, insurance providers conduct a cyber insurance risk assessment as part of their underwriting process. Depending on your company's size, this assessment can vary from a self-assessment questionnaire to third-party audits conducted over several weeks by a cybersecurity firm. Regular check-ups and reassessments are also possible.
To maintain acceptable risk levels, policyholders must meet basic IT security standards to qualify for cyber insurance. At a minimum, a company seeking cyber insurance must have the following safety measures in place:
- Employees must receive cybersecurity training and be briefed on security policy.
- All PCs must be equipped with up-to-date antivirus software.
- Central patch management should be used to apply critical updates in a timely manner.
- The company network must be protected by a firewall.
- Regular data backups must be performed using external media or a secure cloud service.
- Vulnerabilities should be identified through vulnerability scanning or penetration tests.
- Endpoint protection and intrusion detection should be implemented to thwart attacks.
- User accounts and permissions must be actively managed and routinely audited.
- Admin and other privileged accounts must have multi-factor authentication for added security.
To reduce exposure to the growing frequency of cyberattacks, insurance providers are increasingly stringent in enforcing security requirements. Many now demand independent audits or official certifications like ISO 27001 or NIST CSF compliance.
Cyber Insurance Requirements:
Vulnerability Management
Vulnerability management involves the continuous process of detecting, classifying, addressing, and mitigating potential weaknesses. It should be an integral part of your organization's overall security strategy.
A vulnerability refers to a flaw or weakness in an information system, system component, or application that threat actors could exploit to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data or systems. Vulnerability scanning plays a crucial role in vulnerability management.
This process helps organizations proactively identify vulnerabilities in their network before attackers can take advantage of them. Conducting periodic penetration test or external vulnerability scanning is important to uncover weaknesses that external threat actors might exploit. Additionally, more frequent internal vulnerability scanning is necessary to identify vulnerabilities that malicious internal users could exploit.
To qualify for cyber insurance coverage, companies typically need to maintain an active and comprehensive vulnerability management program. Cyber insurance providers consider vulnerability management essential for mitigating risks and preventing potential cyber incidents.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Software
A crucial aspect to assess is whether your organization possesses sufficient endpoint detection and response (EDR). EDR plays vital roles in an effective cybersecurity strategy, as they can identify and mitigate high-risk or abnormal activities.
Security Awareness Training & Testing
To be eligible for cyber insurance, businesses must undergo security awareness training and testing. This ensures that employees stay informed about security threats and procedures, ultimately reducing the risk of falling victim to a cyber attack. Regular mock phishing campaigns (testing) instill a baseline level of vigilance in the team, as nobody wants to fail a phishing email test and undergo additional training. While cybersecurity training can be complex and time-consuming, streamlining workflows can alleviate the training burden.
ESKA provides comprehensive cyber awareness training for employees, read more about our service.
Privileged Access Management
During the development, testing, and release phases, DevOps and engineering teams require access to critical infrastructure components. To safeguard against potential misuse or mishandling of privileged accounts and credentials scattered across databases, servers, clusters, web apps, and clouds, insurance providers may mandate the adoption of privileged access management solutions for businesses.
In scenarios where large teams are involved, privileged access management enhances cybersecurity by restricting access to critical resources to only authorized team members. Additionally, in the event of an incident, a privileged access management solution aids in identifying the source of the issue and implementing measures to prevent its recurrence.
Incident Response Plan
Businesses seeking insurance coverage may be required to have a well-defined incident response plan, ensuring swift and effective responses to cyberattacks while minimizing their impact.
An incident response plan outlines the processes and procedures your organization should follow when detecting a potential incident. These actions aim to contain the ongoing situation and mitigate the damage.
A comprehensive plan should clearly identify whom to notify in case of an incident and the appropriate communication channels to be used. It will also outline the necessary information to gather during the incident and provide a taxonomy for categorizing each event.
Moreover, a robust incident response plan will include a post-mortem and root cause analysis after the incident has been resolved by the staff. This assessment helps in understanding the incident's impact and identifying measures for future prevention.
Our incident response team always ready to react on cyberattack.
Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA), also referred to as two-factor authentication, stands as one of the most effective security controls for safeguarding user accounts and thwarting unauthorized logins. With MFA, users must provide their username and password to validate their identity for account login. An additional layer of security comes into play, requiring users to authenticate through a "second factor," such as a one-time code sent to their mobile device, email, or a token.
Internally, when MFA is mandatory for every login, it adds an extra layer of protection, making it significantly harder for threat actors to gain unauthorized access to resources. Especially in the context of an increasingly remote workforce, where users can log in from virtually anywhere, MFA becomes a crucial necessity.
Externally, MFA has several benefits, such as reducing the number of internet-facing accounts that threat actors might attempt to compromise, like work email accounts. Additionally, it can limit the impact of cyber attacks like social engineering. Even if a threat actor obtains a password, they would still need the additional level of authentication provided by MFA to access the account.
Encryption
To mitigate the risk of data breaches, insurers might mandate businesses to encrypt sensitive data.
Encryption serves as a protective measure for data at rest and in transit, safeguarding it from theft or manipulation by transforming it into code that can only be deciphered with a unique secret key. This fundamental security practice plays a vital role in cloud computing security.
Industry-Specific Compliance Standards
To be eligible for cyber insurance, your company must ensure proper monitoring of individuals' access to various files and resources. This process, known as User Lifecycle Management, guarantees that your employees have the necessary permissions for their tasks, while avoiding any unnecessary access that could jeopardize security. Centralized management of user access not only qualifies you for insurance but is also a crucial requirement for meeting specific compliance standards in various industries.
Compliance regulations that explicitly demand or significantly benefit from an identity and access management solution encompass the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX Compliance) in the financial sector, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and TIXAX certification in the automotive field. Additionally, it is an integral part of the ISO 27001.
Meet Cyber Insurance Requirements with ESKA
ESKA ensures that your most sensitive information is accessed by the appropriate individuals at the right moment, enabling your business to meet regulatory compliance standards, mitigate cyber risks, and qualify for the most comprehensive cyber insurance policy available.