Cowbell Cyber Finds Small-to-Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) More Likely to Adopt Cyber Insurance

Analysis Finds SMEs Expected to Spend More on Cyber #Insurance in Next Two Years Compared to Large Enterprises

PLEASANTON, Calif., June 18, 2020 — Cowbell Cyber today released “The Economic Impact of Cyber Insurance,” a survey analysis focused on cyber insurance for SMEs. The Cowbell Cyber analysis is an extension of “Driving Cybersecurity Performance” — a research report published by ESI Thoughtlab — and specifically extracts data for cyber insurance buying intentions, drivers, satisfaction, limits, and disparities between SMEs (revenue <$1B) vs. large enterprises (revenue >$1B) in the United States.

According to the ESI Thoughtlab report, which surveyed executives at 1,009 companies across 13 industries from November 2019 to January 2020, 65 percent of SMEs are planning to spend more on cyber insurance as part of their cyber resilience plan in the next two years, compared to 58 percent of large companies. The report also finds that 70 percent of SMEs have a cyber coverage limit lower than $1M and lower than total past or estimated future losses and expenses related to a cyberattack. Further, cyber coverage limits varied across industries, with the report finding that life sciences, healthcare, retail/hospitality, and telecom are severely undercovered and show the biggest gap between limit and expected losses.

“Cyber breaches are no longer an ‘if’ scenario but rather a ‘when’ scenario. Our analysis of the survey results show that cyber insurance is becoming increasingly popular for SME organizations that want to protect their assets and accelerate the response and recovery process in the aftermath of a cyber incident,” said Isabelle Dumont, VP of Market Engagement at Cowbell Cyber. “Cyber insurance is now a necessity and not a luxury for organizations. At Cowbell Cyber, we offer clarity and flexibility in the cyber coverages offered, keeping the unique needs of each policyholder in mind.”

Additional key takeaways from the analysis report include:

• SMEs and large enterprises converge on the likelihood of their business experiencing a breach over the next year: 44 percent
• 65 percent of SMEs are generally satisfied with the ROI of cybersecurity insurance
• On average, organizations opt for cybersecurity insurance coverage limits of about 0.14% of revenue
• Cyberattacks using password and credential reuse cause the greatest losses today and the greatest risk over the next two years
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is significantly under-deployed in SMEs (18 percent) compared to very large enterprises (43 percent)
• 55 percent of SMEs point to employee-owned end-user devices as the highest risk in two years

To download Cowbell Cyber’s cyber insurance survey analysis please visit here. To obtain access to ESI Thoughtlab’s research report, please visit here.

Cowbell Cyber provides standalone, admitted cyber insurance coverage to small and mid-size businesses and is distributed through a network of independent agencies with agents able to issue standalone, tailored coverage policies in less than 5 minutes. Agencies can visit https://cowbell.insure/for-agencies/  to get appointed.

SMEs can sign up at https://cowbell.insure/for-businesses/ to access a free comprehensive security risk assessment based on Cowbell Factors, Cowbell’s proprietary multi-variant risk ratings factors.

About Cowbell Cyber

Cowbell Cyber maps insurable threats and risk exposures using artificial intelligence to determine the probability of threats and impact on coverage types. In its unique approach to risk selection and pricing, Cowbell’s continuous underwriting platform, powered by Cowbell Factors™, compresses the insurance process from submission to issue to less than 5 minutes. Cowbell Insurance Agency is currently licensed in 15 U.S. states and provides SMBs with admitted cyber insurance with up to $5 Million in coverage.  For more information, please visit https://cowbell.insure/

Media Contact
Jacqueline Meyler
Lumina Communications for Cowbell Cyber
Cowbell@LuminaPR.com
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