The cyber-insurance checklist for growing organizations
Insurers ask for the same handful of controls. Collect the evidence before renewal and the questionnaire becomes a formality.
Cyber-insurance applications have become detailed security questionnaires. The questions vary by carrier, but the controls behind them are consistent, and an organization that can show evidence for each one renews faster and with fewer exclusions.
Expect to be asked about multi-factor authentication on email, remote access and administrative accounts; endpoint detection and response on every workstation and server; backups that are offline or immutable and have been restored in a test; patching on a defined schedule; and a written incident response plan that someone has rehearsed.
For each control, collect proof: a screenshot of the MFA policy, an export of endpoint coverage, a backup restore report with a date, a patch compliance report and the incident plan with the date of the last tabletop exercise. Store them in one folder that carries over to next year.
Where a control is missing, close the gap before the renewal date rather than answering optimistically. An inaccurate answer on an application can create problems at claim time, which is exactly when you need the policy to work.
Key takeaways
- MFA, EDR, tested backups, patching and an incident plan
- Keep dated evidence for every control in one place
- Close gaps before renewal instead of answering optimistically
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