Let’s take a brief dive into how cybercriminals target insurance companies.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) on shared mailboxes

BEC and social engineering don’t require breaking into your system. All it takes is for an attacker to convincingly pretend to be someone else on your staff. The shared inbox that’s accessible to more than one person is a BEC fraudster’s dream.

Credential stuffing attacks

When an unrelated website suffers a data breach, attackers collect those stolen usernames and passwords and then test them across other platforms. This tactic is known as credential stuffing. If you use the same password for both your work email and a random shopping site, attackers can slip into your network and exploit that access for weeks before anyone notices.

Legacy Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access

The only good RDP is the one you no longer use, especially in public-facing ways. Remote Desktop Protocol is the security equivalent of leaving a laptop unlocked with a neon blinking “RANSOM HERE” sign. In insurance cybersecurity, outdated RDP access is a common entry point for attackers, giving them easy access to sensitive policyholder data and critical systems.

Third-party portals

TPAs, independent agents, and other vendors who need access to your systems are an entirely different flavor of the same problem. You’re inviting these third parties into your environment, giving them access to your system, and hoping they’re all security experts who will keep their sensitive access details safe. According to Security Magazine, 59% of breaches affecting the insurance sector stem from third-party attack vectors.

Your cybersecurity policy doesn’t have to be a complicated, term-filled tome that everyone skips over on their desk. Huntress specializes in managed security services so your team can focus on, you know, insurance.

Managed ITDR: Identity Theft and Detection Response

Managed Identity Threat Detection and Response (Managed ITDR) detects suspicious activity that targets user identities. Be it logins from improbable geolocations, OAuth abuse that allows attackers to gain persistent access via seemingly legitimate apps, or inbox rule tampering that silently forwards sensitive emails to external addresses, Huntress can protect against and rapidly respond to user identity threats in real-time.

Managed EDR: Endpoint Detection and Response

Managed Endpoint Detection and Response (Managed EDR) acts as a canary in the coal mine. This security service takes care of nasty stuff like ransomware behavior, persistence mechanisms, and attempts at lateral movement. If attackers get a foothold on one system, it’s only a matter of time before they try to branch out across your environment. Our Managed EDR service will detect that attempt and remediate it before your entire claims file is turned into a ransom note.

Managed SIEM: Security Information and Event Management

Insurance company cyber risk management requires visibility, and our Managed SIEM provides just that across your entire environment. Every security event and log entry will be collected, correlated, and investigated across your network, cloud, endpoints, and email environment. We give you compliance-ready reporting, data retention that meets or exceeds regulatory requirements, and proper documentation that won’t get rejected by an auditor for incomplete fields.

Security Awareness Training

Our Security Awareness Training helps staff recognize suspicious emails and increase their cyber hygiene habits, so they’re less likely to be the chink in your armor.

24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC)

Our 24/7 human-led SOC offers around-the-clock monitoring and response to cybersecurity threats. Our expert analysts continuously watch your environment, reducing dwell time for attackers so we can contain breaches faster.

Real outcomes with our SOC

• Far fewer false positives: Our SOC has a human-led approach with smartly validated threats, which helps reduce alert fatigue.
• Quicker incident response: In the off chance something slips through and is actually real, Huntress is already on it. Our SOC is trained to respond in minutes, not hours, and contain threats before they can fully take root and blossom into full-on data breaches.
• Clean artifacts for audits: Our SOC pre-documents every action it takes. When the auditors come knocking, you’ll have neat, clean, comprehensive documentation to prove that you do, in fact, have all the security controls you say you have.

Here we answer some of the most pressing questions about how Huntress helps insurance companies stay secure, reduce risks, and navigate the complex world of cyber threats with confidence.

1. How does cybersecurity affect the insurance industry?

Cybersecurity affects all insurance companies, from small local shops to industry giants. A single data breach or ransomware attack can compromise compliance with regulatory bodies, impact your ability to secure cyber insurance, and damage your reputation. One breach can result in data loss, fines, and negative press coverage. For example, insurers have faced $19 million in penalties for failing to meet cybersecurity requirements.

2. How do companies protect themselves from cybercrime?

Insurance companies need a multi-layered security approach that secures identity, endpoints, and email. The idea is “defense in depth.”

• Managed EDR stops ransomware actors before they can escalate their attacks
• ITDR identifies suspicious logins from unusual locations
• SIEM provides visibility into your entire environment
• Security Awareness Training equips employees to identify phishing emails

Throw in multi-factor authentication (MFA), regular patching of legacy applications, and stricter scrutiny of third-party access, and you’re well protected against the majority of attacks.

3. What’s the biggest risk for an insurance company?

A data breach. Insurance companies store huge amounts of policyholder PII and financial information. You’ve got intense regulatory scrutiny on your back, a distributed workforce operating remotely, and third-party vendors that provide attackers with multiple points of entry. A single successful ransomware attack could stop your claims processing, expose you to multi-million dollar fines, and wreck your reputation within minutes. For smaller insurance companies, it’s not an exaggeration to say that one major breach could put you out of business.

Book a platform demo to see how Huntress can provide your insurance company with the cybersecurity coverage it needs, without the hassle of tools that aren’t tailored to insurance workflows, reporting needs, or agent-based environments.

We can show you how we can reduce your insurance company’s cybersecurity risk exposure with fewer false positives, faster incident response, and security awareness training designed for insurance agents and employees.