Cyber Essentials for Cyber Insurance

Why insurers care about Cyber Essentials

Cyber insurance has hardened: insurers want evidence of basic hygiene before they'll quote, and they price around it. Cyber Essentials maps neatly onto what the proposal form asks — MFA, patching, backups, access control — so a current certificate answers much of it in one line and signals you're a lower risk.

• It's increasingly required. A growing number of insurers ask for Cyber Essentials to offer cover at all, and some require the audited CE Plus for higher limits.
• It affects the premium. Certification is a recognised risk signal; government figures indicate certified organisations are markedly less likely to make a claim, which insurers reflect at renewal.
• It speeds up the proposal. The proposal form's security questions largely mirror the Cyber Essentials controls, so certifying gets you most of the answers.

Cover comes included, too

Eligible UK organisations (turnover under £20m) that certify their whole organisation get IASME's cyber-liability insurance included with Cyber Essentials at no extra cost — a useful baseline while you arrange or renew your main policy.

Where testing fits

Some insurers, or higher levels of cover, also want evidence of penetration testing. If that's on your proposal form, our penetration testing for cyber insurance pairs naturally with certification — we scope both to what your insurer actually asks for.

Common questions