Tips for brokers selling cyber insurance

Understanding a client’s specific cyber exposure — and raising cyber insurance throughout the policy term — can go a long way in helping sell the product, an industry professional said last week during a webinar.

“The brokers…[that] keep growing year over year don’t wait to have the discussion about the need for cyber insurance at the renewal period, which I think is very tempting to be fair,” says Kelly McGuinness, cyber, tech and professional liability development leader for CFC in Canada. “Oftentimes brokers are dealing with hundreds of clients, and they don’t have the time necessarily to talk to them mid-term about the potential exposures that exist.

“But I found that brokers who have the conversation throughout the policy term for their other coverage find a lot of success when they bring up the conversation around cyber insurance.”

McGuiness made her comments during the CFC webinar, The inside cyber scoop: What brokers need to know in 2026. She was responding to a question from webinar host Lindsey Maher, CFC’s head of global cyber development, about what differentiates the brokers McGuiness works with who are “consistently winning cyber deals, from those who struggle.”

Another tip is to not overcomplicate selling cyber insurance, McGuiness says. “If brokers take the time to know what the client’s exposures are from a cyber perspective, and walk them through a claim situation for their specific company, they help to make what’s perceived to be intangible risk a little bit more tangible.”

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Tailoring the cyber product to the broker and business

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This means becoming an expert in specific industry verticals, she says. For example, if a client works in construction, it would be a good start for brokers to understand the general cyber exposures for construction companies, learn the claims examples and then roll that out in the industry vertical before moving to the next one.

And given that almost all Canadian businesses are small- to medium-sized enterprises (with 90%-to-95% falling below $250 million in revenue), no opportunity is too small for brokers, McGuiness says. “You have to get into the weeds and make sure that no opportunity is too small to actually take on.”

It’s also important to work collaboratively with underwriters to get a better understanding of cyber risks and the expectations underwriters have from company to company and risk to risk, McGuiness says. “Picking up the phone and talking to an underwriter is one of the most efficient ways to actually learn and then regurgitate that information back to the client.”

Lastly, brokers should be “coverage focused, not price focused,” she says. This means focusing on the value of the coverage, emphasizing what’s important to the client and how shortfalls of some policies won’t cover them in the event of a claim, versus focusing on pricing changes year over year.

AI-enabled attacks

Some clients may not realize how easy it’s become for cybercriminals to target an organization, particularly with AI-enabled attacks.

Another webinar speaker says when he started more than 20 years ago as an ethical hacker, it used to take months or even years to identify an attack path for an organization.

Jason Hart, managing director of CFC’s Proactive Cyber and Global Security Services, says he first had to identify all the employees within the organization, the attack surface, internet-connected devices and associated processes. Then he had to bring the people, technology and processes together to look for weaknesses or potential areas of attack.

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“What if I was to tell you now I could do that in five milliseconds using a simple tool [such] as ChatGPT?” Hart asks.

Anybody could ask ChatGPT about a company’s attack surface, domain name system or external assets. The AI tool can also tell if the company has the right encryption certificates and other configuration settings. Then ask it about all the employees at an organization and their interests. 

“Now I have all that you can [say]…‘Could you create a phishing email for some X number of employees?’ Craft a phishing email and it would send it and all of that done…in two minutes,” Hart says. “It’s just an evolution. AI is building on top of ways that hackers have gained access to an organization over time.”

Jason Contant

Jason has been an award-winning journalist with Canadian Underwriter for more than a decade, including the past three years as associate editor and, before that, as digital editor for seven years.