The Cyber Insurance Landscape Has Changed Dramatically

Three years ago, many Ohio businesses could get a cyber insurance policy with minimal security controls — just answering "yes" to a few basic questions was enough. That era is over. Following a wave of costly claims, carriers have dramatically tightened requirements, increased premiums, and — critically — begun scrutinizing claims more aggressively for misrepresentation.

The consequence: many Ohio businesses have policies they believe protect them, but that could be voided or reduced when they actually need to file a claim.

What Carriers Now Require (2025)

While requirements vary by carrier and policy size, most cyber insurance applications in 2025 ask about — and require evidence of — the following controls:

Non-Negotiable Controls (Nearly Every Carrier)

  • MFA on all administrative and remote access — Carriers are now asking for specifics: which systems, which accounts, which authentication methods
  • EDR on all endpoints — Not just antivirus; behavioral endpoint detection with a named platform
  • Email security — Anti-phishing with attachment sandboxing
  • Tested backups — Evidence of backup testing and defined recovery time objectives
  • Patch management — Regular, documented patching with defined SLAs
  • Incident response plan — A documented, tested plan — not a document that was created once and filed away

Increasingly Required Controls

  • Privileged access management / removal of local admin rights
  • Vulnerability scanning (internal and external)
  • Application allowlisting (Zero Trust) for higher-risk industries
  • Security awareness training with phishing simulation results
  • Third-party vendor security management

Why Claims Get Denied

The most common reasons cyber insurance claims are denied or reduced in Ohio:

  • Misrepresentation at application: The business attested to having controls (like MFA) they didn't actually have consistently deployed
  • Controls lapsed after policy inception: MFA was deployed for the application but removed or exempted later
  • Excluded events: The attack type (e.g., social engineering wire fraud) was specifically excluded from coverage
  • War exclusions: Nation-state attacks may invoke war exclusions — a growing gray area
  • Policy limits: The incident cost exceeds the policy limit — which hasn't kept pace with average incident costs

Carriers are not your partner after a breach. They're looking for reasons to reduce what they pay. Your documentation is your defense.

How to Position Your Business for Favorable Coverage

The best approach is to implement the controls genuinely — not for the application, but because they reduce your actual risk. The byproduct is better coverage, lower premiums, and claims that hold up.

Securafy's SECURE-CARE tier is specifically designed to implement and maintain all of the controls that carriers require, and to document them in a way that supports accurate application attestation and post-incident claim support.

FAQ: Cyber Insurance for Ohio Businesses

At minimum: MFA on admin/remote access, EDR on all endpoints, email security, tested immutable backups, documented patch management, and an incident response plan. Many carriers now also require vulnerability scanning, PAM, and security awareness training evidence.

Most commonly: the business attested to controls they didn't actually maintain consistently. Carriers audit after a claim and if MFA was listed as deployed but wasn't on all required systems, coverage can be voided or reduced. Accurate application attestation backed by real documentation is critical.

Yes. Our SECURE-CARE tier implements all the controls carriers require and maintains the documentation to support accurate attestation. We also help clients complete renewal questionnaires as part of our quarterly security reviews.