Highlights:

  • The collaboration is the result of study from Sophos that showed the importance of cyber insurance in bolstering security.
  • 95% of the U.S. small and midsized businesses cited in the study discovered that their experience securing cyber insurance coverage had changed over the previous year as attacks’ complexity has continued to rise.

To make it simpler for businesses to obtain cyber insurance, cybersecurity company Sophos Group plc announced a partnership with cybersecurity insurance provider Cowbell Cyber Inc.

Through the Sophos Marketplace, customers of Cowbell will be able to access insurance from Sophos and directly share with Cowbell information about their security health to enable the most accurate premium quotes and policies. Through the Cowbell Marketplace, Cowbell customers will also have simple access to Sophos Managed Detection and Response, a service that currently defends over 15,000 companies.

The collaboration is the result of a study from Sophos that showed the importance of cyber insurance in bolstering security. According to the study, 64% of American businesses said they used new tools or services to strengthen their insurance situation the previous year, and 57% said they had increased staff training.

However, 95% of the US small and midsized businesses cited in the study discovered that their experience securing cyber insurance coverage had changed over the previous year as attacks’ complexity has continued to rise. A little more than half said they needed a higher standard of cybersecurity to be covered, 44% said plans are now more complicated, and 37% discovered that fewer insurance companies were willing to provide them with coverage.

Raja Patel, Sr. Vice President of products at Sophos, stated, “Specifically with this partnership, Sophos endpoint customers will be able to ‘opt in’ to share with Cowbell their endpoint security health status from the Sophos Central platform, using a new data connector. This easy-to-enable connection will streamline Cowbell’s risk assessment process, allowing assessors to efficiently evaluate Sophos customers’ defenses against the requirements needed for insurance policies.”

The partnership will “enable Sophos and Cowbell to provide real-time feedback to our customers about how to improve their practices and risk profile if needed.” Although having appropriate protection, detection, and response security in place is the best cyber defense, Patel continued, some organizations still require guidance on best practices.

One of the more well-known startups offering cybersecurity protection is Cowbell. When the business raised USD 100 million in funding from PruVen Capital LLC, Permira Holdings Ltd., NYCA Partners LLC, and Viola Fintech Management Ltd., it made headlines around this time last year. More recently, Cowbell introduced a round-the-clock incident response service that gives customers thorough assistance with risk reduction and incident response.