Cyber insurance applications have gotten a lot harder to fill out honestly.
A few years ago, a checkbox questionnaire was enough. Today, carriers want documented evidence — and a wrong or overstated answer can void a claim after a breach, not just raise your premium.
The Questions That Trip Businesses Up
- Do you have multi-factor authentication enforced on all email, remote access, and admin accounts?
- Do you have endpoint detection and response (EDR), not just legacy antivirus?
- Are backups immutable and tested, and are they segmented from your primary network?
- Do you have a documented incident response plan, and has it been tested in the last 12 months?
- How quickly are critical patches applied across servers and endpoints?
- Do you have email filtering and security awareness training in place?
Many businesses assume "yes" to most of these — until an assessment shows gaps between what leadership believes and what's actually configured.
Why This Matters Beyond the Premium
- Incomplete or inaccurate answers can be grounds for a denied claim
- Missing controls (especially MFA and EDR) increasingly disqualify applicants outright
- Carriers are standardizing around a shared baseline of expected controls
Getting Ahead of the Application
The businesses that get the best terms treat the questionnaire as a checklist to satisfy before applying, not a form to fill out honestly and hope for the best. That starts with an independent review of your current stack against what carriers actually require — not what your current vendor says you have.
Final Thoughts
Your cyber insurance renewal shouldn't be the first time you find out where your security gaps are. A free IT and security review can surface them well before the application does.