Qualys teams up with Converge on play to lower insurance premiums

Qualys, a provider of cloud-based IT, security and compliance solutions, has teamed up with underwriting and cyber risk management specialists Converge for a joint offering that rewards organisations for demonstrated cybersecurity compliance.

The collaboration lets Qualys customers who actively manage and prove strong security hygiene with the company's Enterprise TruRisk Management (ETM) software and platform to potentially qualify for reduced cyber insurance premiums from Converge.

Qualys' Converge Connect Insurance Report (CCIR) generated by ETM verifies a company's vulnerability management, patch management and endpoint detection controls in a standardised format that Converge underwriters can quickly and accurately evaluate.

By providing underwriters with accurate insights into an organisation’s security posture in real time, the Qualys CCIR results in a "more objective and precise premium that reflects real risk levels rather than industry averages", the company claims.

Automated data from Qualys ETM feeds into the CCIR, with the report including metrics that showcase measurable risk reduction, faster remediation velocity, higher compliance rates and expanded asset coverage.

“Cyber insurance is key to the overall risk management strategy, but there has to be an easier way to correlate the strength of an organisation’s cyber posture with what they should pay in insurance,” said Sumedh Thakar, president and chief executive of Qualys.

“That’s why we created ETM to provide stakeholders with an accurate picture of their true risk, enabling better business outcomes like cyber insurance savings, and a greater incentive to reduce their cyber risk.”

Converge’s CEO, Tom Kang, said cyber risk has traditionally been priced on snapshots and self-reported answers, which creates exposure between renewals.

“With verified data, we will be able to underwrite to a company’s live security posture and provide policyholders who do the hard work of reducing risk to see the benefits,” Kang said.

The Qualys CCIR will cover a range of solutions across the Qualys portfolio, including ETM, Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response (VMDR), TruRisk Eliminate, and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR). The report, independently generated live, will be valid for 30 days.