Cyber Insurance's New Reality: Underwriting Isn't Enough
Dark Reading, Friday, October 23rd, 2026
Insurers are moving beyond questionnaires to continuous telemetry and in-house security services as AI and cloud risks outpace loss data.
Dark Reading reports that AI-driven social engineering and cloud concentration risk are making historical loss data less useful for underwriting.
Insurers now expect MFA, EDR, immutable backups and privileged access controls, and some want continuous telemetry rather than annual attestations, while experts warn that lapsed MFA or an untested backup attested on an application is a fast way to have a claim denied.
Carriers such as Coalition, Cowbell and Resilience now offer detection, risk assessment and testing services.
Experts also flag systemic-event exclusions, war exclusions and small dependent business interruption sublimits, advising CISOs to read those clauses first.