Apple, Cisco’s Cyber Insurance Plan Could Change The Game For Enterprise Security

Apple, Cisco, Aon, and Allianz announced a first-of-its-kind cyber insurance plan that could lower cyber insurance deductibles for companies that use the security-focused Apple and Cisco products. This deal could ultimately allow more companies to pay for cyber insurance as well as improve their security in order to lower the deductibles for that insurance.

Apple, Cisco To Lower Cyber Insurance Costs

Apple tends to offer some of the most secure devices on the market, even though its track record hasn't been flawless. It continuously implements modern security solutions ahead of other industry players. These solutions include default storage encryption, Secure Enclaves, advanced biometric authentication, enforcing TLS encryption for most iOS App Store applications, and so on.

Cisco is also one of the better security solution providers in the industry, offering solutions such as advanced email security, endpoint protection, internet site blocking, and other solutions that can help companies protect themselves against ransomware and malware.

Companies that have already been breached that sign-up for this insurance plan can benefit from Cisco and Aon’s incident response teams, too.

Allianz, the insurance company in the group, can take lower deductibles because it trusts the other three companies in the partnership to have implemented strong security for their customers, thus reducing the number or impact of potential data breaches. 

An End To The Stream Of Data Breaches?

Over the past few years, we’ve seen massive data breach after massive data breach. The data of hundreds of millions of people, both customers and employees, was exposed due to the careless security practices of many of the companies being hacked. Most of the impacted companies didn’t seem to take security too seriously, and as such didn’t sufficiently invest in protecting themselves against these attacks.

As Maersk’s chair recently said, it’s not enough for companies to strive to be only average in terms of security. Otherwise, they’ll eventually suffer the consequences, and it could cost them significant amounts of money. Maersk ended up paying up to $300 million to overhaul the company’s infrastructure after the devastating NotPetya attack.

Cyber insurance can help companies recover money lost though damages in case of a data breach. Insurers will want to see strong security being implemented before they sign the companies up for their plans. Therefore, cyber insurance plans should create a positive feedback loop where more companies want to hedge against data breaches.

At the same time, the insurers will promote and enforce stronger security for their customers in order to reduce their own costs. The lower they can make the data breach risk for their customers, the lower they can make the deductibles. Therefore, insurers, security companies, their enterprise customers, as well as the end-users should all benefit from such plans in the long term, as security is improved across the board in the industry.