Cyber Insurance: What They Don't Tell You (Until You Try to Claim)

Vesna Ergarac
Jun 22
3 min read

Why Your Policy Might Not Protect You — and What to Do Before It’s Too Late

Let’s be blunt: cyber insurance won’t save your business if you can’t prove you were doing the right thing. You can pay your premiums, submit the forms, and feel a sense of security — until a real incident hits. That’s when the real questions start, and most businesses realize they’re nowhere near ready.

Recently, I worked with several reasonably sized businesses — smart, well-run operations — who were caught off-guard by what their insurers were asking. Not just vague questions. We’re talking about detailed evidence of technical controls, incident response plans, data recovery capabilities, and ongoing security practices.

The scary part? Even with all the right tools in place, none of them had the documentation or clarity to back up their answers confidently. If they’d had to make a claim that week, there’s a very real chance it would have been delayed or denied.

💡 Let me break it down: Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes

Cyber insurers are done playing nice. They’ve been burned by too many vague claims and unverified environments. Now they want hard proof — logs, screenshots, audit trails, incident timelines — and they want it fast.

Tick-box compliance is not enough. Saying you have daily backups or MFA won’t cut it unless you can show how those backups are protected and which systems are actually covered by MFA.

No incident plan = no payout. If your idea of a breach response is phoning your IT guy at 10pm, you’re already behind. Insurers now expect clear, rehearsed, documented incident response plans — or they’ll use that gap to reduce or reject your claim.

So where does that leave you?

That’s where ST3MTech comes in.

With years of experience in cybersecurity consulting, I’ve walked businesses through:

Completing complex cyber insurance forms (like those from CFC and other providers)
Translating technical chaos into insurer-friendly answers
Uncovering gaps that would sabotage your claim
Creating or refining the documentation and disaster plans you didn’t know you needed

And I’m not just stopping there — I’m now diving deeper, starting a Master’s in Financial Crime Investigations and Compliance, so I can give my clients even sharper insight into what the insurance industry (and regulators) are really looking for. Because let’s be honest — cyber attacks are getting nastier, regulators are getting stricter, and insurers are getting smarter.

🛑 Bottom Line:

If a ransomware gang locked down your files tonight, would you:

Know what to do in the first hour?
Be able to show proof of your backup strategy?
Have the right logs to explain what happened and why?

Or would you be caught off-guard, scrambling, watching your claim go up in smoke?

🔐 The Good News?

You don’t have to figure it out alone.

ST3MTech will work with you confidentially, strategically, and without judgment. We’ll assess what’s really happening in your digital environment, help you meet insurer expectations, and give you the confidence to face a cyber audit head-on.

💥 We don’t just fill in forms.💥 We build real resilience.💥 And when chaos hits, we’re the ones you want in your corner! We'll weather the cyber storms with you!!

Cyber threats are escalating — but with the right plan, so is your power to protect your business.