Worried about whether your company could be the victim of a data breach? It’s wise to be concerned. Last year, the U.S. saw a record-breaking number of data breaches, impacting more than 350,000 million people. In 2024, the average cost of a data breach globally has reached $4.88M. That’s the highest average ever, and a 10% increase over last year.
These numbers reflect the growing sophistication of cyber attacks and the increasing risk to organizations. To mitigate those risks and defray the costs, many companies turn to cyber insurance. Depending on the type of policy, cyber insurance coverage typically covers legal expenses, incident response costs, lost revenue due to business disruption, and sometimes the cost of a ransomware attack.
However, qualifying for coverage is harder than you might think. As data breaches have become more expensive, cyber insurance requirements have become more stringent as well.
What Do Cyber Insurance Companies Require to Ensure Coverage?
Getting cyber insurance coverage is no longer a given. In light of the high cost of a data breach and the onslaught of continually evolving cyber attacks, insurance companies have raised the bar in terms of expected security protocols. Here are some of the most common requirements:
- Remove local administrator rights.
Removing local admin rights locks down your system by eliminating unlimited, always-on access to admin privileges. This prevents attackers from gaining access through stolen or hacked credentials and then moving unrestricted through the system. - Follow least privilege principles.
Least privilege principles use a security-first, just-in-time approach to managing access rights. In this environment, users receive only the access they need to do a specific task, and then access is immediately revoked.
- Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA)
MFA is a standard security measure that prevents access through compromised credentials. It requires additional forms of identity verification beyond the password, helping to ensure that only the intended user can log in.
- Use a password manager.
Password management tools enforce password best practices, including password complexity, safe password sharing, and preventing the reuse of passwords over time or across different accounts. Many password managers also track lists of compromised passwords on the web and will send an alert if a password shows up on one of those lists.
- Demonstrate strong network security.
Cyber insurance companies will ask detailed questions about your network security measures. These may include firewalls, threat detection measures, security audits, network monitoring, and others. - Provide security awareness training for employees.
Some insurance providers require regular security awareness training for your team members. Training your employees to recognize phishing scams and suspicious emails, follow password policies, and practice physical security of laptops and mobile devices can greatly reduce risk of a cyber incident.
Requirements differ from provider to provider, but these protocols represent a security baseline that most will ask for. The more sophisticated your security controls and protocols are, the more likely it is that you will receive the coverage you need.
How PAM Helps You Meet Cyber Insurance Requirements
If you want to qualify for cyber insurance coverage, you almost certainly need a privileged access management (PAM) solution. According to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report, organizations that used automation as part of a prevention strategy saw an average savings of $2.22M. Automating access management with a PAM solution saves money by reducing risk and by removing the burden of manually processing access requests from your IT staff.
A robust PAM solution addresses many of the most common security requirements for cyber insurance coverage. By removing local admin rights, PAM tools allow you to:
- Enforce principles of least privilege
- Automate access based on predetermined rules
- Prevent attackers from escalating privileges through compromised credentials
- Reduce the risk of credential sharing
- Monitor activity in real time
- Log unusual activity and send alerts
PAM solutions give you deeper insight into your privileged accounts, including who has access rights, when accounts are being accessed, and what is happening in those accounts. Automating the management of these details greatly reduces the risk of an attacker accessing privileged accounts through compromised passwords.
Ramp Up Network Security with CyberFOX
As costs climb and attacks become more sophisticated, cyber insurance requirements have become more sophisticated as well. Putting the right security automation measures in place now will help you stay ahead of the game to ensure your system is protected.
Ready to learn more about how PAM can keep your network safe? Schedule your free demo today!