For Cyber Insurance Carriers & MGAs

Write Better Cyber Policies.
Pay Fewer Claims.

Your policyholders' real security posture is visible from the outside—to attackers and now to you. DataShielder gives underwriters continuous, evidence-based risk intelligence on every applicant and insured organization.

The Cyber Underwriting Blind Spot

Cyber insurance loss ratios have been volatile because underwriting still relies on self-reported questionnaires. What applicants tell you and what their external attack surface reveals are two different stories.

$5.2B
US cyber insurance direct
written premiums in 2023
67%
of cyber claims stem from
external-facing vulnerabilities
277
average days to
detect a breach (IBM)
3x
claims increase for orgs
with exposed credentials

Questionnaires Tell You What They Think.
We Show You What's Real.

Self-attested applications are the norm in cyber underwriting. But the applicant's actual security posture—exposed keys, leaky APIs, forgotten staging environments—is already visible on the internet. You just need the right lens.

Questionnaire-Based Underwriting

  • Self-reported answers with no independent verification
  • Binary yes/no questions that miss nuance and severity
  • Point-in-time snapshot that's stale before ink dries
  • No visibility into shadow IT, forgotten assets, or staging environments
  • Identical questionnaires across vastly different risk profiles

With DataShielder

  • Independent, external assessment of the applicant's real attack surface
  • Quantified risk scoring based on actual exposed secrets and vulnerabilities
  • Continuous monitoring throughout the entire policy lifecycle
  • Discovers assets the applicant doesn't even know are exposed
  • Evidence-based findings tied directly to claims likelihood

Risk Reduction Across the Policy Lifecycle

DataShielder integrates into your underwriting workflow from application through renewal—giving you continuous visibility into the risks you're carrying.

Phase 1

Pre-Bind Assessment

Before you write the policy, scan the applicant's domains to see their real external security posture. Questionnaire says "yes, we use MFA"—but their admin panel has default credentials indexed by Google.

  • Automatic subdomain and asset discovery
  • Exposed credential and API key detection
  • Risk scoring calibrated to claims data
  • Findings report for underwriter review
Phase 2

In-Term Monitoring

Security posture changes after binding. New deployments expose secrets. Developers push API keys to production. Continuous monitoring catches degradation before it becomes a claim.

  • Ongoing scanning throughout the policy term
  • Alerts when new critical exposures appear
  • Policyholder risk trend tracking over time
  • Early warning signals for proactive loss control
Phase 3

Renewal & Claims Support

At renewal, compare the insured's current posture to where they started. During claims, verify whether known exposures were disclosed at application or emerged mid-term.

  • Historical posture data for renewal pricing
  • Evidence trail for claims investigation
  • Remediation tracking tied to premium incentives
  • Data-driven renewal or non-renewal decisions
Underwriter Intelligence

The Exposures That Drive Claims Are Already Publicly Visible

The majority of cyber incidents that generate insurance claims begin with an externally visible weakness—an exposed credential, an unpatched service, a forgotten staging environment. DataShielder finds these before threat actors do.

Exposed Credentials & API Keys

Hardcoded secrets in JavaScript bundles, config files, and source maps that grant direct access to cloud infrastructure and databases.

Forgotten & Shadow Assets

Staging servers, legacy subdomains, and test environments that bypass production security controls and serve as entry points.

PII & Sensitive Data Leaks

Customer data, internal documents, and protected information exposed through APIs, debug endpoints, or misconfigured access controls.

Sample Pre-Bind Assessment

Applicant: Mid-Market SaaS CompanyHigh Risk
47 subdomains discovered • 12 findings across 8 assets
Critical

AWS access keys with S3 write permissions in client-side JavaScript bundle

Critical

Database connection string exposed in public .env file on staging subdomain

High

Admin panel at /admin with default credentials, no MFA enforced

High

API endpoint returning unmasked customer PII without authentication

Medium

Stripe API key with live-mode permissions in page source code

Underwriter action: This applicant's questionnaire reported "yes" to MFA, encryption, and access controls. The external scan tells a different story. Price accordingly—or require remediation before binding.

How External Intelligence Impacts Your Book

Better risk selection means fewer surprises. Continuous monitoring means earlier intervention. The result: a healthier portfolio and more predictable loss ratios.

Better Risk Selection

Identify high-risk applicants that look clean on paper but have critical external exposures. Decline, surcharge, or require remediation before binding.

Reduced Claims Frequency

Organizations with continuously monitored and remediated external exposures experience significantly fewer breaches. Fewer breaches means fewer claims.

Lower Claims Severity

Early detection of exposures limits attacker dwell time and data exfiltration scope. Smaller breaches mean smaller claims payouts.

Accurate Pricing

Move beyond binary questionnaire answers to continuous risk scoring. Price policies based on what you can verify, not what applicants self-report.

Policyholder Engagement

Share findings with insureds as a value-add. Policyholders who remediate their exposures become better risks and more loyal customers.

Portfolio-Level Visibility

Aggregate risk data across your entire book. Identify concentration risk, systemic exposures, and portfolio-wide trends before they become portfolio-wide losses.

"The applicant checked ‘yes’ to MFA.
Their admin panel says otherwise."

"You insure what they tell you.
You pay for what they hide."

"Every exposed key is an open claim
waiting to happen."

What Better Underwriting Looks Like

01

Carrier receives cyber application from a 500-employee healthcare SaaS company

Applicant reports SOC 2 Type II compliance, endpoint detection, MFA everywhere, and encrypted data at rest. Questionnaire score: "Low Risk."

02

DataShielder pre-bind scan reveals a different picture

63 subdomains discovered (applicant disclosed 12). Critical findings: exposed database credentials on a staging server, an unauthenticated API returning patient records, and three forgotten test environments with known vulnerable software.

03

Underwriter adjusts terms based on evidence

Rather than declining outright, the carrier offers coverage with a higher retention, reduced sublimit for data breach response, and requires remediation of critical findings within 90 days as a policy condition.

04

Continuous monitoring validates remediation and catches new exposures

The insured remediates all critical findings within 60 days. At month 7, a new deployment exposes an internal API key—DataShielder flags it, the carrier notifies the insured, and it's resolved before any attacker exploits it.

Result: The policy renewed with improved terms for the insured. Zero claims filed. The carrier retained a profitable account with full visibility into the risk it was carrying.

Built for How Cyber Insurance Actually Works

You don't have access to your applicants' source code, internal networks, or security tools. You never will. DataShielder works the same way—assessing what's visible from the outside, which is exactly what attackers see too.

No Applicant Cooperation Needed

Run pre-bind assessments using only the applicant's domain names. No agents to install, no credentials to request, no delays.

Results at Underwriting Speed

Initial scan results within hours. Full assessment ready before your submission deadline. No multi-week pentest timelines.

Quantified Risk Scoring

Translate technical findings into risk metrics underwriters can act on. Severity-weighted scores that correlate with claims experience.

Attacker's-Eye View

See what threat actors see. The external attack surface is where the vast majority of breaches begin—and it's what DataShielder monitors.

Continuous, Not Point-in-Time

Security posture changes constantly. A clean scan today doesn't mean a clean posture in six months. Continuous monitoring catches drift.

Underwriter-Ready Reports

Clear, non-technical summaries alongside deep technical detail. Built for underwriters to make decisions, not for engineers to debug.

Built for Every Role in Cyber Insurance

Underwriters

Verify applicant security claims independently. Make binding decisions with evidence, not just attestations.

Actuaries & Pricing Teams

Incorporate external risk signals into pricing models. Build loss cost projections grounded in observable security posture data.

Claims Teams

Access historical posture data during claims investigation. Determine whether exposures pre-dated the policy or emerged mid-term.

Loss Control & Risk Engineering

Proactively engage policyholders when new exposures appear. Turn risk intelligence into loss prevention before claims occur.

Portfolio Managers

Monitor aggregate exposure across your book. Identify concentration risk and systemic vulnerabilities that could trigger correlated losses.

Executive Leadership

Clear portfolio-level risk dashboards. Track loss ratio trends against security posture improvements across your insured population.

Stop Insuring What You Can't See

Your applicants' attack surfaces are visible to every threat actor on the internet. It's time they were visible to you too. Start making underwriting decisions backed by evidence, not attestations.

No applicant cooperation needed • Results in hours • Continuous monitoring included