Meeting Cyber Insurer Compliance
Cybersecurity Insurance: Safeguard Against Attacks
No one knows exactly how, when, or where a security breach will strike.
Cybersecurity attacks are on the rise– with a 30% increase year-over-year in 2024. As bad actors constantly evolve their attacks, increasing sophistication and adding new methods, it’s more important than ever that organizations protect themselves.
Cybersecurity insurance has moved from a ‘nice to have’ security benefit, to a necessity for any business operating within the digital world.
No matter how meticulous an organization’s cybersecurity stack may be, there’s always the chance of a breach. Cybersecurity insurance protects against the worst case-scenario, mitigating the tremendous financial impact of an attack.
Cybersecurity Insurance Financial Protection generally covers:
- Legal Fees: Cover the cost of legal representation and liabilities resulting from privacy law violations.
- Extortion and Ransomware Attacks: Protect against the financial burden of cyber extortion. Have you seen Bitcoin prices lately?
- Revenue and Operational Disruption: Recover from lost revenue during downtime and recovery, impact to daily workflows, and reputational damage.
Regulatory Compliance
Reputable insurance providers ensure that policyholders adhere to security regulations as a condition of coverage. Upon receiving cybersecurity coverage, organizations can feel confident in their overall security posture and that they meet required regulatory standards.
Cybersecurity Qualifications
In order to qualify for Cybersecurity insurance, providers calculate each business’s overall security posture. Coverage approval and the cost of premiums are calculated based on risk assessment results.
Organizations may also be required to meet certain security standards, such as:
- MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication): Ensure secure access management through MFA.
- DLP (Data Loss Prevention): Implement measures to prevent unauthorized data loss.
- Regular security monitoring: Conduct regular assessment and testing, including penetration testing.
- Employee training: Provide frequent training on cybersecurity best practices. Nobody enjoys those simulated phishing emails, but the amount of learned precaution they teach over time is invaluable.
- Full email security stack: Establish a comprehensive email security solution, including DMARC implementation of P=Reject.
How DMARC Strengthens Cyber Insurance Strategies
DMARC implementation signals a strong commitment to security, increasing the likelihood of insurance coverage and payouts.
Many providers will explicitly require DMARC, as it lowers the probability of claims significantly for a relatively small amount of work and cost of service.
Preventing phishing (the most common attack vector) and spoofing greatly reduces inbound risks to organizations.
With a fully configured DMARC policy of P=Reject, the demonstrated lower risk profile to insurers results in favorable policy terms and quantifiable savings on annual premiums.
Don’t forget: if you’re just checking the box saying you comply, when the time comes around to invoke that cybersecurity insurance (as it inevitably will when actual security is not being set up), they will absolutely deny coverage as their investigation confirms the environment’s true security levels.
Additional Regulatory Requirements
PCI DSS 4.0
As of March 31, 2025, DMARC will be required for PCI (Payment Card Industry) assessments. This affects all companies that store, process, or transmit cardholder data. The penalties for non-compliance are fines that range from $5,000 to $100,000.
Government Agencies
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requires government agency domains to establish DMARC with a policy of at least P=None, with plans to escalate that up to P=Reject over time.