Turn that Frown Upside Down, Channel Pros. The Security Scene is…Not Terrible

At last year’s RSA, the best thing Trend Micro’s Skinner could say about cyber insurers was that they knew how much they didn’t know about security, and were turning to security vendors for help. 

10 months later, however, the situation looks markedly better. “It’s improving,” Skinner says. “Their questionnaires have gotten smarter. They’re asking more detailed questions.”

Better yet, telemetry-sharing deals like Trend Micro’s alliance with insurer Cowbell Cyber, which allow underwriters to verify and continuously monitor compliance with security best practices, are reducing the need for questionnaires. Kaseya and its partners in the insurance world, moreover, have recently eliminated them altogether.

“We continue to see a shift to ‘insurtech,’ where there is more of a continuous assessment approach,” says Skinner, who expects to see more backend collaboration and fewer questionnaires in the future.