Security vendor Trend Micro and cyber insurer Cowbell Cyber have forged an alliance aimed at helping MSPs secure coverage for their SMB clients more easily and cost-effectively.
The new partnership, which arrives at a time when acquiring and retaining insurance against ransomware and other threats has become harder and more complicated than ever, offers Trend Micro partners and their customers an all-digital, streamlined application process for Cowbell’s Prime 100 cyber insurance policies.
“The number of cyberattacks is at an all-time high, and companies are coming to terms with the fact that size doesn’t matter to an attacker,” said Stephen Years, Cowbell’s director of technology partners and ecosystem, in supplied remarks. “Partnering with a cybersecurity leader like Trend Micro allows us to offer our joint customers the insights and actionable steps they need in order to improve their protection against cyberattacks, thus potentially improving their risk profile.”
Behind-the-scenes collaboration between Cowbell and Trend Micro platforms helps mutual customers reduce risk exposure and get better pricing by delivering real-time insights on strategies for proactively addressing vulnerabilities.
“Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are the gateway to many small to medium enterprises and this partnership empowers them to better serve their customers by taking the complexity often associated with cyber insurance out of the equation,” said Lamon Gorman, director of MSPs at Trend Micro, in a media statement. “The all-digital approach that Cowbell offers is a game changer.”
Per a 2020 appearance by CEO Jack Kudale on the ChannelPro Weekly podcast, Cowbell Cyber utilizes an AI-powered continuous underwriting platform to shorten the process of procuring cyber insurance policies to what the company says is less than five minutes. Its Prime 100 offering provides standalone coverage to organizations with up to $100 million in revenue. Policies offer coverage against expenses related to liability, incident response, forensic investigation, data restoration and replacement, public relations, and more following ransomware, telecommunications fraud, fraudulent funds transfers, and other attacks.
Cowbell announced an agreement last month with iBynd to use the latter’s technology to help affiliated brokers, technology partners, and MSSPs directly rate, quote, and bind Cowbell insurance in real time. iBynd now delivers Cowbell’s “A” rated cyber insurance to SMBs through its distribution network as well.
A new connector to the Cowbell platform introduced last November provides insurance-focused risk assessments to Amazon Web Services users. Another connector announced last September lets users of the Secureworks Taegis VDR vulnerability management solution glean continuous insights into security controls for detection and response.
Trend Micro added zero-trust risk assessments to its unified cybersecurity platform last September.
Cyber insurance prices in the U.S. rose 130% in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to insurance broker and risk advisor Marsh.
Research published in January by Trend Micro illustrates why that number is up so sharply. The company’s Smart Protection Network threat intelligence service, according to the report, stopped 94.2 billion threats in 2021, up 42% year over year.
A separate study from fellow security vendor Kaspersky in December found that 97% of organizations currently have at least some cyber insurance. To get coverage, 70% of respondents to that study said they would spend more on security controls, 52% would spend more on compliance, and 44% would spend more on education.
