I was on a call with a client when the million-dollar question dropped:
“What steps can I take to guarantee my cyber insurance claim gets paid?
Fair question. Short answer? You can’t. There are no guarantees in life.
But you can get pretty damn close. I’ve seen how these things go. The breaches. The claims. The lawsuits. The denial letters.
And if I had to bet my business on getting that check, I’d follow these three steps without blinking.
Step 1: Know What You Signed
Your cyber insurance policy isn’t magic. It’s a contract—between you and an insurance provider that’s highly motivated not to pay you unless you do everything right.
You’d never sign a vendor contract without reading the fine print.
Yet people do this every day with cyber insurance.
What’s covered? What’s excluded? What happens if the attack is considered “an act of war”? (Yes, that’s a real clause—and no, your insurer won’t be shy about using it.)
If you don’t understand your policy, you’re not protected.
You’re paying for a false sense of security.
Step 2: Tell the Truth—or Else
When you applied, they asked what you do to protect client, patient, and employee data.
Did you guess? Did you check with your team? Did you tell them you have MFA on everything—even though it’s still on your IT wish list?
Because here’s the thing: your answers become part of the contract.
If they find out later that you weren’t doing what you claimed, it’s not just bad luck.
It’s fraud. Don’t know the answers? Find someone who does.
A vCSO. An expert. Someone who can walk through the policy and your stack and tell you if you’re even in the same ballpark.
Step 3: Prove It or Lose It
You said you do cyber awareness training. You said you review policies. You said you have an incident response plan.
Show me the receipts. Because that’s what your insurer’s legal team is going to ask for. And if you don’t have them? That denial letter writes itself.
Evidence isn’t optional—it’s your defense strategy. Without it, you’re not just denied.
You’re on the hook.
Bonus Step: The IR Plan You Thought You Had
Here’s the cherry on top: Have a written incident response plan. Not just a vague “we’ll figure it out when it happens” playbook.
I mean a documented, tested plan that:
- Identifies your critical data assets
- Lays out roles and responsibilities
- Connects the dots between your systems and what you’re insuring
This plan is your roadmap when chaos hits. It’s also Exhibit A when you need to prove you weren’t negligent.
Not Sure Where You Stand?
Think you’ve got it handled? Sure? Confident?
Prove it.
Let’s do a Cyber Liability Assessment.
We’ll review your insurance policy, your controls, and your evidence—and we’ll tell you where you stand before a breach makes that decision for you. Because when the breach hits, it’s too late to wish you read the fine print.
Book your Cyber Liability Assessment now—before your claim gets denied and your name ends up in a headline.
