Qualys, Inc., a pioneer and provider of disruptive cloud-based IT, security and compliance solutions, and Cowbell, a provider of cyber insurance announced they are expanding their partnership, adding a real-time attack surface intelligence feed from Qualys’ External Attack Surface Management (EASM) to assess customer cyber risk for cyber insurance purposes.
What is the market offering of the joint solution?
An ideal way to assess a firm’s cyber preparedness is to combine the inside-out with an outside-in attacker view of the attack surface. Qualys EASM leverages the Qualys Cloud Platform to scour the entire attack surface including third-party data and internet-facing unknown assets, domains, sub-domains, M&A, and subsidiaries assets like installed apps.
It then overlays business and risk context to establish asset criticality and TruRisk score. Also, it identifies unauthorised, end-of-life and end-of-service software, the absence of required security tools, and assesses the health of attack surface. Through the deal, Cowbell will utilize Qualys EASM data, enriching the library of scanners used by Cowbell for risk assessment.
At the same time, External Attack Surface assessment showing attack surface risks, vulnerabilities, security misconfigurations and comprehensive cyber risk posture will be available to customers seeking standalone cyber insurance coverage through Cowbell. In addition to this, Cowbell policyholders can activate built-in connectors for VMDR, Compliance and Container Security via the Cowbell platform and become eligible for premium credits.
What does this mean for Qualys and Cowbell?
“Our collaboration with Cowbell brings additional innovation to the cyber insurance industry. And by leveraging high accuracy and comprehensive security signals from Qualys EASM, cyber insurance companies such as Cowbell can ultimately assess the risk posture for any organisation in real time, which could reduce payouts and reward clients by optimising their cyber insurance premiums,” commented Pinkesh Shah, Chief Product Officer of Qualys.
“Cowbell is at the forefront of cyber insurance innovation, and we’re constantly looking for ways to provide high fidelity and continuous assessment of policyholders’ cybersecurity posture to reduce their risk exposure,” said Rajeev Gupta, co-founder and CPO at Cowbell.
“The partnership further strengthens our ability to assess risk for insurance purposes and close the insurability gaps for many firms seeking financial protection through insurance.”
