Walking the Walk: Closing the Cyber Gap Inside Insurance Companies

The insurance industry has long been on the front lines of risk management. Yet, when it comes to protecting their own digital assets, many in the insurance providers, brokers, underwriters and MGAs are still playing catch-up. In a world where cyber threats are constantly shifting, relying solely on internal cyber security teams and traditional compliance measures is no longer enough.

External cyber security validation is a necessity. Bringing in independent experts to act as an extension of your internal team can uncover hidden vulnerabilities, enhance regulatory compliance, and build a proactive security culture that protects not just your data, but your long-term reputation.

Why Internal Measures Aren’t Cutting It

Insurance companies are facing a perfect storm of cyber threats. The rise of ransomware, insider threats, and simple misconfigurations are putting the industry at risk in ways that internal teams alone often can’t fully address.

●      Internal Threats: Whether malicious or accidental, they continue to be a major concern. Employees, contractors, and even trusted vendors can become weak links in the security chain. In fact, 43% of organisations reported an increase in internal threats or data leaks initiated by compromised, careless, or negligent employees in the past year (Mimecast, 2025).

●      Misconfigurations: Too often overlooked and can expose sensitive systems and customer data to attackers without anyone noticing until it's too late.

●      Ransomware: Attacks are becoming more sophisticated, targeting professional services providers with precision, knowing the stakes are high and downtime is expensive. In the UK, it’s reported that ransomware incidents doubled in the last 12 months (GOV.UK, 2025).

These risks demand a level of vigilance and expertise that can be hard to maintain internally, particularly when teams are already stretched thin responding to day-to-day operations.

External validation brings a fresh set of eyes, advanced threat intelligence, and experience from across the industry, ensuring insurance industry leaders don’t just think they are secure - they know they are.

Moving From Reactive to Proactive

Historically, the insurance sector has treated cyber security much like any other operational risk - something to react to once an incident occurs, rather than a constant threat requiring active management. The industry has long focused on underwriting cyber risk for others - perhaps without applying the same urgency to protecting its own digital infrastructure. This mindset, shaped by a legacy of insuring against loss rather than preventing it, is now proving outdated.

The “whack-a-mole” approach to cyber security is costing organisations dearly and rarely alleviates the fear of cyber-attack. Organisations, especially those in insurance, are facing the challenge of navigating a constant barrage of cyber threats, such as ransomware, insider breaches, and system misconfigurations. The UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024 reports that 32% of businesses experienced a breach or attack in the past year. In the financial services sector, which includes insurance, breaches typically cost over £5 million per incident, factoring in business disruption, regulatory fines, and reputational damage (IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023). The prevailing approach often involves reactionary measures, resulting in fragmented security infrastructure, short-term solutions, and inefficient allocation of resources. However, by embedding proactive cyber security measures into their operations, insurance companies can get ahead of threats, strengthening resilience and mitigating the rising financial impact of cyber incidents.

This shift is not one the industry has to make alone. External cyber security partners can help to drive this change by:

●      Conducting a regular cadence of cyber security maturity assessments to report on an organisations current operational posture, show change/improvement over time (ROI) and define the most critical areas of strategy focus and budgetary attention  

●      Going beyond traditional penetration testing to focus on scenario testing to evaluate the effectiveness of security controls and defences against specific adversarial tactics and behaviours

●      Building incident response plans and conducting tabletop exercises that prepare teams for rapid action

●      Imbedding continuous monitoring to catch new threats as they emerge, responding to these

Proactive cyber security is about creating a culture where security is woven into every decision and every process. With external experts embedded alongside your teams, you gain the skills and insights needed to nurture that mindset from the top down.

Strengthening Compliance with Confidence

Meeting regulatory requirements is another major pressure point for the insurance industry. Whether it’s GDPR, DORA, NIS2 or standards like NIST and ISO27001, the compliance landscape is becoming more complex - and less forgiving. Regulators are no longer satisfied with static checklists or one-time audits. They expect continuous, demonstrable improvements in security posture.

External cyber security validation helps insurance companies meet and exceed these expectations. Independent assessments provide unbiased evidence that systems are tested, secure, and improving over time. They also offer a critical advantage when responding to audits, regulatory inquiries, or even in the aftermath of an incident.

By proactively working with external cyber security partners, insurance leaders can show regulators and customers that they are serious about protecting sensitive data and maintaining trust.

Walking the Walk in Insurance

While leaders in the insurance industry hold their policyholders to increasingly high cyber security standards, their own internal practices often fall short of the same discipline - expecting clients to meet rigorous assessments and frameworks that they themselves have not fully adopted. This inconsistency can undermine credibility with clients, regulators, and the broader market. To truly lead by example, the insurance industry must apply the same proactive, validated cyber security practices internally that they expect from their policyholders. Building internal resilience isn’t just about protecting their own assets - it reinforces their authority and commitment as risk management leaders in an industry under constant threat.

Real-world breaches highlight why this matters. In the UK, major insurer Bupa suffered a serious breach when an employee illegally accessed and attempted to sell customer data affecting 547,000 individuals.

This is just one of the many examples of how insider threats and insufficient internal controls can seriously damage trust and trigger regulatory scrutiny. The 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report indicates that insiders were responsible for 35% of data breaches analysed. We therefore can’t forget that cyber security failures can emerge from within - hence why proactive validation has never been more essential.

Securing the Future of Insurance

The risks faced today are different from the risks of a decade ago - and so are the expectations from customers, regulators, and shareholders. Ransomware, internal threats, and misconfigurations represent a growing danger that isn’t going away anytime soon. Reactive security simply can’t cut it anymore to keep you safe.

External cyber security validation strengthens internal teams by adding fresh expertise, diverse perspectives, and renewed energy to the challenge of protecting critical assets.

As the cyber threat landscape continues to expand, leaders who invest in proactive, independent validation today will be better positioned to protect their customers, their reputations, and their futures. In cyber security, prevention is everything - and it starts with knowing where you stand.

 If you’re a cyber security professional in the insurance industry who needs some support, get in touch today. We at Cyro Cyber are here to help.