Cyber Insurance Readiness
Your insurer no longer takes your word for it.
Cyber insurance carriers now demand proof of controls — MFA everywhere, EDR on every endpoint, verified backups, a tested incident response plan — at application, at renewal, and at claim time. Attestation without evidence is how claims get denied and coverage gets non-renewed.
Cyber insurance readiness means the proof your insurer asks for — MFA enforcement records, EDR coverage, backup verification, incident response documentation — already exists when the application, renewal, or claim arrives. FCI enforces those controls every day and produces timestamped evidence continuously through the FCI Portal, so attestations are backed by proof.
What Insurers Ask For
The renewal questionnaire is a controls audit.
Renewal questionnaires have converged on the same core controls. Underwriters no longer ask whether the firm has a policy — they ask for the records that prove enforcement. These are the five requests that decide the renewal.
“We have MFA” is not the same as “here is evidence that MFA is enforced for every user, on every login, with no exceptions.” Insurers ask for the second. FCI deploys phishing-resistant MFA aligned with CISA Zero Trust guidance and produces the enforcement records insurers require.
Endpoint detection and response deployed, active, and documented — per device, per day, including BYOD. The FCI Portal shows real-time enforcement status across every endpoint, exportable for underwriter review.
Backups that run and are verified — not assumed. FCI documents backup verification as part of cloud app security, so recovery capability is evidenced rather than asserted on the application.
Insurers ask whether users are trained and tested against phishing. FCI runs phishing campaigns and documents the results — tied to individual users, across every registered representative and every branch.
Documented, tested, and backed by a 24×7 SOC with forensic capability — and the experience to work directly with the FBI, regulators, and cyber insurers when an incident occurs.
The Attestation Trap
A checkbox you can't prove is worse than an empty one.
Every cyber insurance application ends the same way: a list of controls and a column of checkboxes. MFA on all accounts — yes. EDR on all endpoints — yes. Tested backups — yes. Each checkbox is a representation the firm is making to its insurer. At claim time, each one gets verified.
Checking a box without verification creates liability. If the control was not actually in place at the time of a claim, the attestation becomes evidence against the firm — grounds to deny the claim, reduce the payout, or challenge the policy itself.
Cyber insurers are increasingly requiring proof — not attestation — that specific controls were active when the incident occurred. If the firm cannot produce that evidence, the policy may not pay.
If controls were enforced and documented, the evidence supports the claim. If they were not enforced — or the documentation is incomplete — the same evidence trail supports the insurer's denial.
A firm's IT provider turned off multi-factor authentication to simplify upgrade scripts. A phishing site captured credentials. A bad actor wired $700,000 from a client account. When FCI was brought in, the FBI's primary suspect was the advisory firm itself — because without documented controls, the firm couldn't prove what happened.
How FCI Prepares You
The renewal evidence package builds itself, every day.
FCI does not run a renewal-prep project. Every control FCI enforces generates evidence as it runs, and that evidence assembles continuously in the FCI Portal — organized, timestamped, and current. When the questionnaire arrives, the compliance officer doesn't launch a scramble. They open the FCI Portal and export the record.
"The renewal application is pre-supported by the FCI Portal's continuous compliance record — timestamped evidence of enforcement, not just policy statements."
Claim Time
Two versions of claim day.
Insurance pays on proof. Whether a claim is honored depends less on what the firm was doing and more on what the firm can prove it was doing — at the time of the incident, not after.
The breach happens. The claim is filed. The insurer's first request: evidence that the attested controls were active at the time of the incident. IT starts reconstructing logs from systems that were never configured to keep them. The gap between the application's checkboxes and the reconstructed record becomes the insurer's case. The claim is denied, reduced, or contested — at the exact moment the firm needs the money.
The breach happens. The 24×7 SOC contains it — device isolation, forensic evidence preservation, documented remediation, coordinated communication with the firm's compliance team. The timestamped enforcement record already exists, built continuously before the incident. FCI works directly with the FBI, regulators, and the cyber insurer. The documentation shows enforcement, not absence — and supports the claim instead of the denial.
Cyber insurance readiness — common questions
See what your next renewal will ask for — and what you can prove today — in 30 minutes.
FCI works with broker-dealers and branch offices, insurance carriers and agencies, and RIAs. Request a gap analysis. You will have a clear picture of what controls must be in place, what is missing, and what your next cyber insurance renewal, regulatory exam, or home office audit will ask for.