Cyber insurance is increasingly becoming a board-level risk management conversation. For CISOs, the question is no longer simply whether the organization should purchase cyber insurance. The more important question is which cyber insurance provider actually understands your risk.
A cyber insurance policy can provide valuable financial protection. But a policy is only one component of a broader cyber risk strategy. The CISO should therefore approach cyber insurance as an extension of the organization's overall risk management framework.
Understand what you are actually insuring
Before speaking to insurers, identify your organization's critical digital assets. These may include:
What happens financially if this asset becomes unavailable, compromised or stolen?
Understand your attack surface
A modern organization's attack surface extends beyond its office network. It may include:
A cyber insurer should have a meaningful way of understanding this exposure.
Ask how the insurer assesses risk
This is one of the most important questions a CISO can ask.
The answers can tell you a great deal about the provider.
Ask how risk is handled after underwriting
Cyber risk does not stop changing after the policy is issued. Ask:
“What happens if our technology environment changes?”
“What happens if our security posture improves?”
“What happens if a major vulnerability emerges?”
“How does the insurer maintain visibility?”
Understand your coverage
CISOs should work with their insurance and legal teams to understand the actual policy wording. Consider areas such as:
Understand exclusions
This is one of the most frequently overlooked areas. Read the exclusions. Understand the conditions. Ask:
The objective is not to find a policy with no exclusions. The objective is to understand exactly where coverage begins and ends.
Evaluate incident response
The moment a cyber incident happens is not the time to start learning how your insurer works. Ask:
Ask who actually understands cyber risk
Who provides the cybersecurity expertise behind your cyber underwriting?
Cybersecurity is a specialist discipline. Insurance is a specialist discipline. Organizations should understand how those two disciplines come together.
Barbon: Cybersecurity expertise for the insurance industry
Barbon operates at the intersection of cybersecurity and insurance. Our role is to help bring technology risk intelligence into the insurance ecosystem. Barbon works with insurers and insurance partners to help them better understand, assess and manage technology risk associated with cyber insurance.
Insurer
Provides the insurance
Barbon
Provides specialist cyber risk intelligence
Together
A more informed approach to cyber insurance
The CISO's cyber insurance checklist
What are our most important digital assets?
What is our current cyber exposure?
How does the insurer assess that exposure?
How frequently is risk reassessed?
What coverage do we actually need?
What exclusions apply?
What security controls are required?
What incident response services are available?
How are claims handled?
What cybersecurity expertise supports underwriting?
Does the insurer work with specialist cyber risk companies?
Does the insurer partner with Barbon?
The best cyber insurance is informed by better risk intelligence
The goal of cyber insurance should not simply be to transfer risk. It should begin with understanding it. The more accurately cyber risk is understood, the more informed the insurance relationship can become.
Cyber insurance needs cyber intelligence.
Start with the insurer. Then ask the question that matters:
Do you partner with Barbon?