Microsoft has announced a new multiyear commitment to help the insurance industry create cyber insurance products with the support of Microsoft’s security solutions.
According to Microsoft, the technology firm is teaming up with insurance partners to offer insurance products that allow customers to safely share security posture information through platforms like Microsoft 365 and the company’s security solutions.
Microsoft says this partnership is designed to help develop the rapidly growing cyber insurance industry, address customers’ cybersecurity needs and reduce insurers’ own risk of loss through increased data visibility and standardized controls.
Data and details about a covered company’s technology environment will be entirely owned and controlled by the customer, but they can also opt-in to securely share them with providers to receive benefits like enhanced coverage and more competitive premiums, according to a Microsoft blog.
“This model rewards customers with real savings when adopting cybersecurity best practices and gives insurers the information they need to proactively protect their customers against breaches,” the company announced.
As part of the initiative, Microsoft is partnering with cyber insurance firm At-Bay, which Microsoft calls a “groundbreaking” cyber insurance firm that assesses the cyber risk of each company it insures and provides actionable insights on how customers can improve their cyber defenses.
“Incentivizing the implementation of security controls with improved policy terms and pricing has strengthened the overall security of At-Bay’s portfolio companies,” Microsoft said in the blog. “According to At-Bay, their insureds are seven times less likely to experience a ransomware incident than the industry average.”
Now, businesses in the U.S. that use Microsoft 365 are eligible for savings on their At-Bay cyber insurance premiums if they implement specific security controls and solutions like multifactor authentication and Microsoft Defender for Office 365. The companies are also working together to identify additional ways to improve the digital risk exposure of its customers and address vulnerabilities.
That offer will be available through At-Bay’s broker community and for customers using any version of Microsoft 365. To get started, businesses can contract their insurance brokers.
If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!
Leave a Reply