RapidFire Tools has introduced a new module for its Audit Guru compliance automation product designed to help businesses with cyber insurance policies prove that they’ve taken reasonable steps to protect their IT assets.
The new system, called Audit Guru for Cyber Insurance, arrives at a time when insurers are increasingly rejecting claims on the grounds that policyholders neglected to exercise due diligence in securing their infrastructure. Kaseya previewed the imminent release of the product at its Connect IT event in Las Vegas earlier this month.†RapidFire Tools has been a business unit of IT management software maker Kaseya†since last September.
“There’s been more and more press lately that insurance companies aren’t paying out,” says Michael Mittel, president and general manager of RapidFire Tools. “On an ongoing basis, we can produce documentation showing that the MSP’s customer, through the MSP, has made a reasonable attempt to harden the network.”
The new system is available now to a limited set of early adopters. General availability to all RapidFire Tools customers is set to begin by the end of June.
According to Mittel, documenting compliance with cyber policy requirements during the claims process is one of three ways MSPs can use Audit Guru for Cyber Insurance. Verifying the accuracy of information in a customer’s insurance application is another, as is identifying areas of non-compliance in need of remediation.
“The MSP can make changes and fix these issues that are identified in the reports so that they’re again in compliance with the terms and conditions of these insurance policies,” Mittel says.
Information checked by the new system spans from firewall settings and patch histories to password policies and beyond. “There’s dozens of points of vulnerabilities that we take a look at,” Mittel says.
Using Audit Guru for Cyber Insurance can help MSPs differentiate themselves from competitors and enhance the stickiness of their client relationships, he continues. Channel pros can also turn running documentation reports on a monthly or more frequent basis, and addressing any issues those reports expose, into a source of incremental recurring revenue.
Buyers pay a fixed fee for unlimited use of the new solution. “For $500 for month, they can offer this to all their customers,” says Mittel.
Discounted pricing is available as well for users who combine Audit Guru for Cyber Insurance with other Audit Guru modules. RapidFire Tools shipped a module for GDPR compliance last March and a second module for HIPAA compliance this January. “In general, as the person buys more of these modules, we reduce the price for each one,” Mittel says.
All three of Audit Guru modules share a common, consolidated management interface.
Cybercrime will inflict $6 trillion in damages annually by 2021, according to researcher Cybersecurity Ventures. In response, global sales of cyber insurance policies are skyrocketing, from $4.2 billion in 2017 to an estimated $22.8 billion by 2024, according to Zion Market Research.
“With all the viruses and ransomware and all sorts of hacking going on out there, a cyber liability policy is kind of a must for most businesses,” Mittel says. To ensure they receive the benefits promised in those policies, though, businesses must stay in continual compliance with an often lengthy list of security-related requirements.
“You have to read the fine print,” Mittel says, adding that Audit Guru Cyber Insurance automates that process. “You can go through an insurance policy and make a check list of things that you need to protect in the network and that will expose a business to potential liability,” he says, “but we’ve done that for the MSP and for the MSP’s customer.”
According to Mittel, RapidFire Tools is investigating ways to integrate the new Audit Guru module with Kaseya’s RMM and PSA solutions.
