You paid the premium, and you thought you were covered. But when something goes wrong, the insurer says, “Denied.”
That moment hits hard and happens more often than most business leaders realize. Not because your policy isn’t in place, but because your IT controls don’t match the fine print. The truth is that cyber insurance isn’t just a safety net; it’s a compliance test you don’t know you’re taking until the worst happens.
The Gotchas in the Fine Print
Most cyber policies come with a long list of conditions: MFA required across all systems, EDR in place, documented backups, vulnerability scans, breach response timelines, etc.
And here’s the catch: it’s not enough to have those tools. You have to prove they’re working consistently.
We’ve seen businesses decline claims because they thought backups were working, but hadn’t tested restores. Or they rolled out MFA for cloud tools but forgot to cover remote desktop access. It doesn’t take a huge gap to give an insurer a reason to walk away.
The Disconnect Between IT and Risk
In-house IT teams are doing the best they can. But they’re usually focused on operations: keeping systems online and tickets cleared. They’re not always mapping what they do in the language of insurance audits. That’s where the cracks show up.
For example:
- Is your patching process documented and auditable?
- Do you run phishing simulations or just talk about awareness training?
- Are dark web scans being done, and are they logged?
- Can you show a record of vulnerability scans with remediation steps taken?
These aren’t just security questions. They’re financial ones. A failed audit can mean denial of coverage or refusal to renew. Worse, it might leave your business liable for damages without any help to recover.
What We’re Seeing in the Field
We’ve worked with clients who had cyber insurance applications filled out by office managers, not security teams. No one verified whether the answers were technically accurate. That’s not fraud, but it’s enough to invalidate coverage in the event of a breach.
We’ve also seen insurers start running their own scans against policyholders before quoting or renewing. That means you need to know your exposure before they do.
How to Get Ahead of the Audit
This isn’t about fear. It’s about preparation.
At Solve iT, we build cyber insurance readiness into every threat assessment. We help you map your current security controls to what carriers expect:
- Documented policies
- Restorable backups
- MFA and EDR compliance
- Proof of employee training
- Logs of scans and remediations
You’ll walk away with a gap report and a plan to close it before the audit, not after a claim.
Book your free threat assessment today.
We’ll include a cyber insurance readiness review, phishing test, and dark web scan. No sales pitch. Just answers.
Your team might be doing great work, but the audit still needs proof. Let’s make sure you’re covered when it counts.
