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Risk trigger

Cyber insurance review after a near-miss.

A phishing email got two clicks before IT killed the link. A vendor announced a breach and you don’t yet know which of your data was in scope. Accounts payable nearly wired six figures to a spoofed domain. Nothing triggered notice. The next one will.

The situation

The free look between an event and an incident.

A near-miss is a free look at how the cyber tower would actually respond. The IR vendor on the panel may not be the firm IT trusts. The BEC sublimit may be a tenth of the wire-transfer authority sitting in AP. The ransomware coinsurance line may be 50% of every dollar of ransom and recovery, not the headline limit. The war and hostile-act exclusion may catch a state-sponsored actor that the threat intelligence vendor already attributed to a sanctioned country.

None of that is visible at quote. It’s visible at incident. The window between near-miss and renewal is the cheap time to fix it.

Why most programs fail this test

The four failure modes we see most.

  1. Ransomware coinsurance nobody read. A 50% coinsurance line on extortion payments and incident response halves the recovery before the deductible even applies.
  2. War and hostile-act exclusion. Recent versions reach state-sponsored cyber actors. If your IR vendor’s first call attributes the actor to a sanctioned country, the exclusion is now an active conversation.
  3. IR panel that excludes the firm’s preferred forensics vendor. The carrier panel doesn’t include the firm IT and counsel actually want at 2 a.m. The carrier won’t pay for off-panel without prior consent and a fight.
  4. BEC sublimit too low for AP exposure. A $250,000 social engineering sublimit on an AP function with $5 million weekly disbursements. Plus a wait-period sublimit on business interruption that won’t survive a real outage.

What we look at

Cyber tower under stress, sublimit by sublimit.

  • Incident triage on what the near-miss actually exposed: detection time, dwell time, vendor pathway, and what would have escalated if a human had moved slightly faster.
  • Mid-term changes vs waiting for renewal: when a re-quote makes sense, when an endorsement makes sense, and when neither is realistic.
  • MFA, EDR, and underwriting questions: what was attested to at last bind, what’s actually in production, and the material misrepresentation risk if those answers have drifted.
  • Sublimit stress test: ransomware, business interruption, BEC, social engineering, regulatory defense, PCI fines, telephone fraud, and cryptojacking.
  • IR panel review: who’s listed, who you’d actually call, prior-consent mechanics, and panel-flexibility endorsements.
  • BEC and social engineering wording: who has to be deceived, what authentication had to occur, and whether voluntary parting language quietly applies.
  • War, hostile-act, and infrastructure exclusions, with attention to recent market wording.
  • Notice provisions, retroactive date, and continuity of coverage if a re-quote moves carriers.

How fast we move

Near-miss windows close fast.

Week one
Engagement, document intake, near-miss triage, and a written gap memo against the current cyber forms.
Week two to three
Endorsement options or full re-quote, depending on how far renewal is and whether material change disclosure applies.
Renewal-aligned
If renewal is within 60 days, we fold the near-miss findings into the renewal submission rather than running two processes.
One business day
Initial response on every inbound. After a near-miss, the calendar accelerates.

Placement

How placement works through Rush Insurance.

The cyber program review, the sublimit stress test, the IR panel work, and the disclosure narrative for the carrier all sit with Vetted Risk. When the conversation moves to an endorsement, mid-term re-quote, or renewal submission, the file moves to Rush Insurance, our licensed placement partner.

Vetted Risk is not licensed to sell, solicit, or negotiate insurance. Compensation related to placement flows to Rush. Vetted Risk receives no commission, no override, and no contingent compensation.

Related coverage lines

Where cyber review usually reaches.

  • Cyber Liability

    Sublimits, coinsurance, IR panel, BEC wording, and war and hostile-act exclusions read line by line.

    Review cyber →

  • Professional Liability

    E&O overlap with cyber on data handling, vendor breach claims, and tech services exposures sitting on both towers.

    Review E&O →

  • Management Liability

    Securities and derivative claims following a public incident, plus EPL exposure on insider error and termination decisions tied to the event.

    Review D&O →

Next step

Read the tower before the next event reads it for you.

One business day response. Independent review. Placement coordinated through Rush Insurance.

Request an introduction → support@vettedrisk.com

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