At 010grp, we see this tension up close. We design and operate cyber protection programs for Canadian organizations that need both real security and insurance that actually pays out. Cyber insurance is now your parachute, useful, sometimes essential, but absolutely not your armour.
Your policy is not a magic shield
Canadian businesses are facing more aggressive, better-funded, and more automated attacks than ever. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security’s latest National Cyber Threat Assessment is blunt: ransomware, supply‑chain compromise, and state‑sponsored activity are all trending in the wrong direction and will remain a persistent threat to Canadian organizations through at least 2026.
Meanwhile, cyber insurance has evolved from a cheap add‑on to a heavily scrutinized risk instrument. Underwriters now expect to see proof of controls like multi‑factor authentication (MFA), endpoint detection and response (EDR/MDR), immutable backups, and documented incident response plans, and they’re prepared to deny claims when those aren’t actually in place.
We’ve already seen real‑world examples where Canadian organizations lost millions in coverage because MFA wasn’t fully implemented, despite what the paperwork suggested. That’s not theory. That’s taxpayers and shareholders eating the loss.
Three dangerous myths about cyber insurance (that attackers love)
Myth 1: “If something happens, the insurer will just write the cheque.”
Reality: the number one reason claims are denied is not some exotic legal loophole- it’s basic scope and control failures. The incident doesn’t fall within the policy wording, or the insured can’t demonstrate they had the promised controls in place when the attack hit.
If you can’t prove MFA, EDR, backups, and an incident response plan were operational- not just “on a roadmap” don’t expect a smooth payout.
Myth 2: “We’re small. Insurers don’t expect much from us.”
Wrong. Canadian SMEs are now the preferred victims of ransomware and business email compromise because they’re big enough to be profitable, but often weakly defended. That’s exactly why insurers treat missing MFA and backups as a deal‑breaker, regardless of company size.
If you’re still thinking “we’re too small to be hacked,” we’ve already tackled why that’s a dangerous fantasy in Think Your Business Is Too Small for a Cyberattack? Think Again.
Myth 3: “Cyber insurance replaces investment in security.”
Cyber insurance was never designed to be a substitute for security controls. It’s a financial backstop, not a firewall. Canadian privacy law (PIPEDA and provincial equivalents) still expects you to implement “appropriate safeguards” and report certain breaches or face potential penalties and legal exposure. No policy can shield you from regulators, clients walking away, or the operational chaos of a month‑long outage.
The 5‑move cyber resilience playbook insurers actually respect
If you want your insurer, your regulator, and your board to sleep at night, you need a security program that stands on its own with cyber insurance as the last line, not the first.
Here’s the hard‑earned playbook we at 010grp use when we build cyber protection services for Canadian businesses.
1. Fix identity and access first (because hackers log in)
Most modern attacks don’t “break in”, they log in with stolen or guessed credentials. That’s why we say (and proved in detail in Hackers Don’t Break In, They Log In) that credential and access hygiene is your first line of defence.
At a minimum, you should:
- Enforce MFA everywhere it’s remotely possible- especially email, VPN, remote desktop, and admin portals.
- Implement modern identity and access management (IAM) with role‑based access and just‑in‑time admin privileges.
- Review and remove stale accounts (former employees, “temporary” access that never expired, test accounts).
010grp’s cyber protection services include IAM and MFA as standard building blocks-nnot “nice‑to‑have” add‑ons.
2. Turn logs into action with 24/7 monitoring and SIEM/SOC
Insurers increasingly ask whether you have centralised logging, SIEM, and 24/7 monitoring, because they know attackers don’t work 9–5. If your organization is blind at 2 a.m., you’re exactly the kind of risk they price up or walk away from.
We’ve already explained why in Canadian SMBs: You’re Flying Blind Without 24/7 Cyber Monitoring — and Hackers Know It and Your MFA Isn’t Enough: The 7 SIEM Moves Canadian SMBs Must Make Now.
Practically, that means:
- A SIEM platform tuned to your environment, not just dumping logs.
- A SOC (ours runs 24/7/365 from Ontario with Canadian data residency) watching and responding in real time.
- Clear incident playbooks for ransomware, business email compromise, insider abuse, and cloud account takeover.
3. Assume compromise and engineer for recovery
Ransomware‑as‑a‑Service reduced the entry cost for attackers to almost zero, which is why we called it “Canada’s hidden cyber time bomb” in Ransomware‑as‑a‑Service: Canada’s Hidden Cyber Time Bomb. Backups are no longer optional: they’re a survival mechanism.
Your cyber insurance application will almost certainly ask about:
- Offline or immutable backups of critical systems and cloud workloads.
- Documented disaster recovery objectives (RPO/RTO) and tested procedures.
- Business continuity plans that cover both IT and operational processes.
These map directly to our business continuity, backup and disaster recovery, and remote monitoring and management (RMM) services. We design them so you’re not just “backed up” but actually capable of restoring under pressure.
4. Run a real cyber risk assessment, and keep it updated
Insurers and regulators care less about whether you own the latest shiny tool, and more about whether you understand your risks and have a plan. OSFI’s Guideline B‑13 for federally regulated financial institutions is explicit: technology and cyber risk management must be comprehensive, governance‑driven, and continuously improved.
Our cyber risk assessment approach is simple but ruthless: identify your weak points, map them to business impact, and prioritise the fixes that measurably reduce risk. That same output also happens to make underwriters a lot more comfortable, because it shows you’re not just winging it.
5. Build a human firewall, not a one‑and‑done training video
Attackers don’t care how fancy your tech stack is if one convincing phishing email can bypass it. Social engineering exclusions are becoming a painful surprise in many policies; some will limit or exclude coverage when a “willing” employee initiates the transaction.
That’s why we embed ongoing security awareness training, phishing simulations, and clear “stop the line” reporting channels into our managed services. We’ve covered practical day‑to‑day hygiene in articles like Cybersecurity Best Practices Every Business Should Adopt in 2025 and Work Safe From Home, and we keep updating them as the threat landscape shifts.
What you should do this month (not “someday”)
If you want your cyber insurance to be more than expensive confetti, here’s a concrete 30‑day action list, one we regularly execute with Canadian clients:
- Pull your current cyber policy and highlight:
- Security warranties and minimum control requirements (MFA, EDR, backups, IR plan).
- Exclusions around social engineering, third‑party providers, and “acts of war.”
- Compare it to reality. Where are you stretching the truth on the application? Where is coverage assuming controls that don’t actually exist?
- Run or update a cyber risk assessment. If you don’t have one, this is where we at 010grp usually start, a focused review that maps weaknesses to business impact and underwriter expectations.
- Close the “claim‑killing” gaps first: MFA everywhere, EDR on endpoints and servers, tested backups, at least a basic incident response playbook.
- Align IT, security, and your broker. The fastest way to have a claim denied is for your broker’s answers, IT’s reality, and your documentation to all tell different stories.
You don’t need a seven‑figure budget to do this. In How to Protect Your Business from Cyber Attacks in 2025 – All the Solutions in One Place we break down how to stack solutions intelligently, and in our 30‑day plan we show how to make real progress without blowing up your operations.
Our opinion, stated plainly
Cyber insurance is not the villain. When paired with a mature security program, it’s an essential part of your risk management strategy. But if it’s the centerpiece of your strategy, you’re already on borrowed time.
At 010grp, our job is to make sure that when the worst‑case scenario hits, three things are true:
- The incident is contained quickly because you had the right controls, monitoring, and playbooks.
- The regulators see you as responsible, not reckless.
- Your insurer looks at your evidence, nods, and pays because you actually did what you said you were doing.
If you’re not confident all three would be true for your organization today, that’s your signal. Whether you work with us or another partner, stop treating your cyber policy as a shield. Build resilience first — then let insurance do what it was meant to do: clean up what’s left, not save you from what was entirely predictable.
