New Research Exposes How the Quality of Cyber Defenses Directly Impacts Insurability, Premium Costs and Policy Terms
Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, today announced a partnership with Measured Analytics and Insurance ("Measured"), the AI-powered cyber insurance provider. The new partnership unlocks Measured insurance premium savings for Sophos’ U.S.-based customers in recognition of their strong cyber defenses.
New research published today finds that cyber insurance adoption is now the norm with 91% of organizations reporting having coverage, with an additional eight percent reporting they don’t currently have coverage but plan to obtain it in the next year. For those that purchased a cyber insurance policy in the last year, 95% say that the quality of their cyber defenses directly impacted their insurability:
- 60% say it impacted their ability to get coverage
- 62% say it impacted the cost of their coverage
- 28% say it impacted the terms of their policy
Insurance coverage, in turn, plays a role in an organization’s ability to recover from an attack:
- Organizations with cyber insurance are more likely to be able to recover data that was encrypted in a ransomware incident: 98% of those with a standalone policy and 97% of those with cyber as part of a wider insurance policy were able to recover encrypted data after a ransomware attack, compared to 84% of those without cyber coverage
- Organizations with standalone cyber insurance policies are almost four times more likely to pay the ransom to recover encrypted data than those without cyber coverage: of those that had data encrypted in a ransomware incident in the last year, 59% of those with a standalone cyber insurance policy paid the ransom, compared with 37% of those with cyber as part of a broader insurance policy and 15% of those that don’t have cyber insurance
“The caliber of an organization’s cybersecurity defenses in protecting against active adversaries is critically important. Organizations need to properly configure and manage security technologies and also effectively respond to threats – and that requires an expert talent skillset,” said Raja Patel, senior vice president of products at Sophos. “Industry-first threat detection and response capabilities now enable Sophos to meet customers where they are and with exactly what they need to ensure superior security outcomes. This partnership is validation that Sophos security solutions and managed detection and response (MDR) services are industry best, and we’re pleased that our customers can now be rewarded for their commitments to optimizing defenses.”
Sophos endpoint customers looking to secure insurance coverage can now ‘opt-in’ to share their security posture from the Sophos Central platform with Measured. Real-time assessments are exclusively used to determine policy eligibility and premium discounts based on the various Sophos offerings used, protection status and security hygiene of protected assets, and compliance with Sophos recommended security policies.
“The connection between robust cyber defenses and optimized cyber insurance makes this partnership a natural extension of our innovative, analytic approach to cyber underwriting,” said Jack Vines, CEO at Measured. “We are trailblazing a frictionless path to cyber insurability through data-driven, quantifiable underwriting. We’re rewarding organizations that use Sophos with better coverage and lower rates because of their stronger cyber hygiene and lower risk profile.”
Data from the report, “The Critical Role of Frontline Cyber Defenses in Cyber Insurance Adoption,” comes from an independent global study of 3,000 cybersecurity/IT professionals across 14 countries conducted in January and February 2023.
About Measured Insurance
Measured Analytics and Insurance is a US-based cyber insurance provider that utilizes proprietary, AI-rich data analytics and national security grade threat intelligence to deliver smarter cyber insurance products. The combination of flexible cyber underwriting solutions, data-driven insights and strategic partnerships with leading cyber security companies makes Measured the cyber risk solutions provider of choice. Learn more at measuredinsurance.com.
Please note that Sophos is not a licensed insurance producer and does not sell, solicit or negotiate insurance products. By providing access to any third-party websites, Sophos is not recommending or endorsing any such third parties, or any products or services offered by such third parties. To the extent you access a third-party website from a Sophos website, please be advised that Sophos does not investigate, monitor, or check any third-party websites, or the content of such websites, for accuracy, appropriateness, or completeness, and you are solely responsible for your interactions with such third parties.