Cyber insurance moves from niche cover to basic defense

Cyber insurance is shifting from a niche add-on to essential protection for businesses and households that relied on technology, according to Keith Savino (pictured), managing partner and national cyber practice leader at Trucordia Insurance. That shift reflects a harsher reality in which even the smallest operators sit on digital systems they cannot fully understand, cannot easily replace and cannot afford to rebuild alone when those systems are disrupted or destroyed.

Savino has watched that change since the dot-com boom and has seen attitudes harden on both sides of the transaction. “Both the industry and insureds have matured,” he explained. The early assumption that cyber cover belonged mainly with banks and online retailers has collapsed as point-of-sale terminals, cloud booking tools and digital payment platforms become standard in restaurants, dry cleaners and local contractors, leaving those firms just as dependent on technology as any financial institution, only with less capital, less expertise and far less room for error when something goes wrong.

As that dependency deepens, Savino tries to shut down what he sees as a dangerous reflex inside too many boardrooms, because leaders still ask whether they really need cyber insurance at all instead of starting from the presumption that they do.

“If you answer yes to these questions – do you have customers?” he asked. “Do you have a bank account, possibly with money in the bank? And do you have any information on anybody? You need cyber.”

The same categories of exposure that once seemed concentrated in large institutions now bear down on owners of a few restaurants or franchises who lack cash reserves, specialist knowledge and legal support, so when an attack encrypts data or disables a key platform, it becomes not a technical inconvenience but a direct threat to the existence of a business, which is why Savino delivered the blunt warning, “If you don’t have the money to buy the policy, you certainly do not have the money to pay the claim,” Savino said.

Savino’s view of the market pushes carriers to look below the traditional large corporate tier. In his world, insurers that fail to follow the risk down into that small and mid-sized segment are running out of room to maneuver, because the real growth in cyber sits with firms that do not have dedicated security teams or deep balance sheets but still rely on the same digital infrastructure as major players.

From there, his argument moves beyond commercial buyers into the personal lives of executives, employees and families, because attackers no longer see a clean boundary between home and office and instead treat every device as a potential route into the corporate environment.

Savino called personal cyber coverage a “great transition” as staff using their own laptops to help children with homework, plan holidays or chase online bargains become prime targets. He spelt out the risk in plain language when he said, “We don’t want to open up another path for the threat actor to find their way in and move laterally or horizontally into the corporate environment,” he explained. Once home networks, personal inboxes and social media accounts are in play, the distinction between a private scam and a corporate breach start to blur.

That blurring shows up clearly in seasonal waves of fake online offers. Savino describes how he almost clicked on a social media advert promising an 80% discount from a well-known luggage brand and how training overruled impulse at the last moment when, he said, “I got excited and almost clicked. Then the ‘think before you click’ instinct kicked in,” Savino said. His decision to pause and investigate instead of buying led him to a cluster of spoofed sites mimicking the same brand, and while he reported them to the legitimate manufacturer, he knew many less cautious shoppers would have handed over card details, addresses and other sensitive information to criminals who take the money and never ship a product, leaving individuals exposed and their data ready to be reused against employers.

In that environment, common sense is necessary yet plainly insufficient, because people in every age group live through their phones and tablets, scatter their data across platforms they barely control and chase discounts on social channels that threat actors constantly manipulate. Savino argues that individuals need the same structured back-up that businesses had learned to value, and he set out the requirement in sharp terms when he said, “People need to buy personal cyber. They need a 1-800 number to talk with people who know more than they do – which, in most cases, is just about everybody.”

Personal cover that once appeared as low-limit identity theft endorsements on homeowners’ policies has shifted into standalone programs his firm offers across high-net-worth and mid-market clients on the principle that income or job function simply changes the angle of attack rather than the level of attention threat actors pay.