Checklist · 9 min read
Meeting cyber insurance requirements without overbuying
Mapping common underwriter requirements — MFA, EDR, monitoring, IR planning — to a pragmatic order of operations.
By One Circle Solutions · Published
Cyber insurance applications have quietly become the most common reason mid-market companies improve their security. The requirements are real, but the panic-buying they trigger often isn't. Here's what underwriters actually ask for, in the order it makes sense to build it.
The near-universal requirements
- MFA — on email, remote access, and privileged accounts; the single most common declination reason
- EDR on endpoints and servers, with something answering 'who monitors it?'
- Tested, offline-capable backups the ransomware can't encrypt alongside production
- An incident response plan that names people, not just phases
- Email security beyond defaults, and security awareness training
- Patching cadence you can describe with a straight face
A pragmatic order of operations
If you're starting from gaps, sequence by risk reduction per dollar rather than by questionnaire order:
- 1. MFA everywhere that matters — days of work, biggest single premium and risk impact
- 2. Backups verified restorable and isolated — the difference between an incident and an extinction event
- 3. EDR deployed with monitoring answered honestly (see: EDR vs MDR)
- 4. IR plan written and contact sheet current — hours of work, heavily weighted by underwriters
- 5. Email hardening and awareness training
- 6. Vulnerability management as an ongoing program, not an annual scan
Where companies overbuy
The questionnaire says 'monitoring' and companies buy a SIEM they'll never staff. It says 'testing' and they buy an annual pentest before fixing the findings from the last one. Match the spend to the control's intent: underwriters want detection with response behind it, backups that restore, and a plan someone has rehearsed — not shelfware.
One honest caution: answer applications accurately. Misstating controls on a cyber application has voided coverage exactly when companies needed it most. If you can't check a box yet, fix the control — don't finesse the answer.