UKON last week
shed the name and corporate mission of its previous iteration to become a cyber insurance marketplace that was created for MSPs, agencies, and enterprise partners to help businesses protect themselves against losses caused by cyberattacks.
In the days since, the Wexford, Pennsylvania, company – which for 10 years had been known as FifthWall Solutions, a cyber-only insurance wholesaler – started collecting partnerships with firms in the cybersecurity and cyber insurance sectors that aim to give elevate the role of MSPs in a cyber insurance industry that is expanding rapidly as the number of attacks grow and the losses mount.
The partnerships with
Cork Protection and
Blackpoint Cyber will give service providers more confidence when quantifying, covering, and discussing risk with their customers, a role that MSPs hadn’t always filled until the upturn in cyberthreats over the past several years, according to Cork CEO
Dan Candee. That has to change.
“Historically, the relationship between an MSP and its client was often transactional,” Candee told MSSP Alert. “A problem would arise – a server would go down, a software issue would emerge – and the MSP would be called in to fix it. The focus was on uptime and operational efficiency.”
That said, the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated threats “has irrevocably altered this dynamic,” he said. “A client’s greatest IT challenge is not just keeping the lights on but safeguarding their digital assets from an ever-present and evolving array of dangers. This has created a critical need for proactive, strategic guidance, and MSPs are increasingly stepping up to fill this role.”
Demand is Growing
The global market for cyber insurance is expected to grow from $20.88 billion last year to
$120.47 billion by 2032, according to analysts with Fortune Business Insights. Trends within the cyberthreat space are driving the demand for cyber insurance, which has become essential to companies’ risk management strategies, according to David Bloxberg, senior global marketing manager with
VIPRE, a New York City cybersecurity company that focuses on SMBs and VARs.
“Cyber risks are an inevitable part of doing business in the modern world,” Bloxberg wrote in a blog post, noting the dependence of modern businesses on technology. “Cyberattacks have grown in sophistication and frequency, leaving companies more vulnerable to breaches. Cyber security insurance
helps protect businesses from the financial and reputational fallout that results from cyber incidents, ensuring they have the resources to recover quickly.”
This is the same for SMBs as it is for enterprises, which makes it particularly important for MSPs and MSSPs to have the tools to help them navigate through the cyber insurance market to find the policy that addresses their needs, Candee said.
“This evolution is not just a matter of preference; it’s a necessity driven by the current threat landscape,” he said. “SMBs are prime targets for cyberattacks – a staggering 43% – and the financial fallout is devastating, with losses averaging tens of thousands of dollars per attack, [which is] especially painful since the average SMB only has 18 days of cash flow on hand.”
Easing Access to Insurance
They also lack the internal expertise and resources to defend themselves and look to their IT partners – MSSPs and MSPs – for guidance, giving them a more prominent advisory role that is good for both them and their customers, he said.
As demand for cyber insurance grows, so do the efforts for organizations and service providers to acquire and analyze policies. Boston-based Cork in April
added the Cyber Insurance Policy Analyzer to its platform, which relies on an AI agent to scan and interpret the language in policies, analyze coverages areas, and show MSPs how the company’s cyber warranty can reduce their customers’ risk.
Earlier that month, cybersecurity platform provider
Todyl partnered with Spectra, which offers a cyber insurance and risk management platform, to create a programs to streamline the certification process for MSSPs and MSPs and their customers.
More recently, cybersecurity company Sophos last month
partnered with insurance broker Capsule to make it easier for its UK customers using MSPs to access cyber insurance coverage.
Collaboration Abounds
Cork’s collaboration with UKON brings together its AI-powered risk monitoring platform for MSSPs and MSPs with UKON’s cyber insurance marketplace means that MSPs will get real-time visibility into a customer’s exposure to cyber risks and UKON can use those insights to create risk reports and tailored coverage options that are then delivered to clients.
Blackpoint is combining its managed detection and response (MDR) plataform and security operations center (SOC) with UKON’s embedded insurance distribution and risk intelligence to give MSPs the ability to help customers meet expanding insurance and compliance and acquire the coverage they need.
A Seat at the Table
Like Cork’s partnership with UKON, another key goal for Blackpoint is to give MSPs the confidence and knowledge they need to talk about insurance and risk from a business perspective as well as a security point of view. This will be increasingly important as insurance becomes a key part of an organizations risk management strategy, Cork’s Candee said.
“Responsible business leaders … are looking for partners who can not only manage their IT infrastructure but also help them navigate this high-stakes environment,” he said. “The move by companies like UKON to empower MSPs in the cyber insurance realm is a direct reflection of this market demand. Clients are more likely to trust the technical expertise of their MSP, who has an intimate understanding of their systems, to guide them in securing the right insurance than an insurance agent who may lack that deep technical insight.”
