How to Complete a Cyber Insurance Security Questionnaire

41% of cyber insurance applications are denied on first submission. The primary reason? Applicants can't demonstrate the controls underwriters require. Questionnaires have grown from 10 questions to 60+ as carriers tighten requirements post-pandemic. Underwriters now verify answers. 3 of 4 carriers run their own external attack surface scans during the underwriting process. If your questionnaire answers don't match what they find, your application is denied — or worse, your claim is denied post-breach. Cyber Defense Agent provides the verified evidence that turns questionnaire answers from "we think so" into "here's the proof."

1. Do you enforce MFA for all remote access? — Carriers require enforced MFA, not just available MFA. CDA verifies email auth which correlates with MFA maturity. 2. Do you use email authentication (SPF/DKIM/DMARC)? — This is now a top-3 underwriting requirement. CDA scans all three protocols. 3. Do you have endpoint detection and response (EDR)? — Basic antivirus is no longer sufficient. Carriers want CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, or Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. 4. Do you maintain immutable backups? — Ransomware-resistant backups are essential. Must be air-gapped or immutable. 5. Do you have an incident response plan? — Written plan, tested annually, with contact information for legal, IT forensics, and notification services. 6. Do you provide security awareness training? — Regular phishing simulations and security training for all employees. 7. Do you patch critical vulnerabilities within 30 days? — Patch management policy with defined SLAs. 8. Do you encrypt data at rest and in transit? — TLS for web traffic, encryption for stored data. CDA verifies TLS configuration. 9. Do you have a privileged access management program? — Admin accounts must be controlled, monitored, and limited. 10. Do you segment your network? — Flat networks are high risk. Carriers want evidence of segmentation.

Cyber Defense Agent transforms the questionnaire process: 1. Pre-scan your answers — Run a scan before completing the questionnaire. Your Cyber Defense Score tells you exactly where you stand. 2. Evidence-backed responses — Instead of self-attesting, link to your trust page showing verified controls. 3. Questionnaire autoresponder — Our AI maps your real scan data to common questionnaire questions, generating accurate responses in minutes instead of hours. 4. Pre-underwriting preparation — Identify and fix the gaps carriers will find during their own scans. Apply with confidence. 5. Renewal documentation — Continuous scanning creates the year-over-year evidence that supports lower renewal premiums.