Cowbell Unveils Adaptive Cyber Insurance; Launches Cowbell Specialty Insurance Company

Cowbell, the leading provider of cyber insurance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), today announced the debut of Adaptive Cyber Insurance – a dynamic approach to insure constantly changing risk – and the launch of its subsidiary, Cowbell Specialty Insurance Company (Cowbell Specialty). Both endeavors mark major milestones for the company whose mission since inception has been to aggressively reinvent cyber insurance, close the insurability gap and drive cyber insurance adoption and distribution to an underserved SME market.

“Three years ago, we launched the insurance industry’s first ever continuous underwriting platform that aligned insurable threats to risk exposures, in order to proactively mitigate losses in the aftermath of cyberattacks,” said Jack Kudale, founder and CEO at Cowbell. “Today, our journey has set us up to lead the next wave of innovation in the cyber insurance industry.”

The dynamic nature of cyber risk requires insurance policies to evolve accordingly. Cowbell’s Adaptive Cyber Insurance transforms cyber coverage from a static offering to a dynamic one, adaptable to today’s and tomorrow’s threats. Policies can now evolve more frequently than yearly to remain aligned with the policyholder’s cyber exposures, avoid coverage gaps and bring full transparency into renewal terms throughout the policy period. Driven by the benefit of strong incentives, policyholders are empowered to improve their organization’s cyber risk profile to avoid potentially disastrous financial losses or reputational damages.

Cowbell’s Adaptive Cyber Insurance bundles risk management tools and services with coverage so that policyholders are able to continuously address changes in the threat landscape. The engagement between Cowbell starts with a real-time benchmark of cyber risks measured by Cowbell Factors, which include inside-out risk data. Continuous risk monitoring and risk engineering services then support policyholders in mitigating newly identified exposures and security weaknesses throughout the policy period. The impact of Adaptive Cyber Insurance is already tangible across current Cowbell policyholders, where continuous risk assessment and risk engineering efforts have contributed to an overall 9 percentage point improvement of their risk profile as benchmarked against their industry peers.

“We welcome Cowbell’s initiative on Adaptive Cyber Insurance,” said Hamesh Chawla, CEO of Mulberri. “Our clients are more and more willing to share inside-out data and have the opportunity to optimize their cyber coverage more than once a year as risk evolves while also applying cyber risk management recommendations from their insurer.”

“We are excited to partner with Cowbell to bring an innovative approach to managing cyber risk,” said Sumedh Thakar, president and CEO of Qualys. “Qualys Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response (VMDR) with TruRisk is helping customers quickly and effectively reduce their cyber risk. Using Cowbell Adaptive Insurance along with Qualys VMDR, companies additionally benefit from their Qualys investment by qualifying for premium incentives.”

The launch of Cowbell Specialty augments Cowbell’s current business model as Cowbell Specialty joins a reputed panel of 15 carriers and reinsurers that currently support Cowbell Prime cyber insurance programs. Paired with Cowbell Re – the company’s reinsurance captive – Cowbell Specialty allows for additional flexibility and control in serving a fast-growing market with innovative solutions such as Adaptive Cyber Insurance, while enforcing best-in-class underwriting for unit-based profitability.

“Adaptive Cyber Insurance is a major evolution for cyber insurance and with the launch of Cowbell Specialty, along with Cowbell Re, we gain the insurance footprint of a tech-enabled, full stack, high-growth insurer, giving us the flexibility to expand our business and innovate for the benefit of all our policyholders,” added Kudale.