What Your Cyber Insurance Renewal Is Actually Asking For

If your cyber insurance renewal questionnaire feels harder to fill out than it used to, that's not your imagination. Carriers have tightened requirements significantly over the past two years, and a policy that renewed smoothly last year can now come back with new demands, or a denial.

Most questionnaires are converging on the same handful of controls:

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) on email, remote access, and any admin-level accounts. This is now table stakes. Carriers routinely deny claims, not just coverage, when a breach occurred through an account that didn't have MFA enabled.

Endpoint detection and response (EDR), not just traditional antivirus. Carriers want to know threats are actively monitored and responded to, not just scanned for after the fact.

Regular, tested backups, ideally with at least one copy isolated from your main network. Ransomware recovery claims are scrutinized closely, and carriers want proof your backups actually work, not just that they exist.

Employee security awareness training, documented and recurring. Phishing remains the most common entry point for a breach, and carriers increasingly ask for proof of ongoing training, not a one-time onboarding video.

A written incident response plan. Not a formality, an actual document naming who does what in the first hours after a suspected breach.

If you're filling out a renewal questionnaire and realizing you can't confidently answer these, that's usually the sign it's time for a proper assessment, not a scramble to check boxes before a deadline. We offer a free network security assessment that walks through exactly these areas, so you know where you stand before your carrier asks.

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