Closing the cyber protection gap for small businesses: CyberCube

A growing cyber protection gap is affecting small businesses, requiring a concerted effort from key industry stakeholders, including cyber brokers, underwriters, and reinsurers to help close it, according to a recent report by CyberCube.

The report highlights that small businesses with annual revenues between $10 million and $250 million make a significant contribution to the global economic output. However, they remain underserved by the global cyber re/insurance market, leaving them vulnerable to attacks without adequate coverage.

Companies with 11 to 1,000 employees make up 75% of ransomware victims, according to data from Coveware, emphasising that small and mid-sized businesses are prime targets for cybercriminals.

Due to a lack of advanced cybersecurity defences, small businesses are more vulnerable to large-scale breaches, allowing attackers to compromise multiple companies at once.

William Altman, Director of Cyber Threat Intelligence Services at CyberCube, said, “This protection gap presents both an opportunity and a responsibility for brokers and (re)insurers.

“Brokers play a crucial role in driving adoption among small businesses, helping them recognise the value of cyber coverage. For (re)insurers, expanding to small enterprises not only broadens market reach and enhances portfolio diversification but also strengthens economic resilience. When small businesses effectively prevent and recover from attacks, they protect jobs, sustain supply chains, and support their communities.”

CyberCube’s report outlines actions cyber brokers, underwriters, and reinsurers can take to close the protection gap for small businesses.

Brokers should prioritise expanding education and access to cyber insurance by incentivising generalist brokers to dedicate more time to selling cyber policies, improving client communication about cyber risks, and providing pre-coverage risk assessments to ensure adequate protection.

Underwriters can improve risk selection and pricing by developing scalable underwriting practices and models tailored to small businesses. Promoting strong cybersecurity measures among small businesses and working with brokers to refine policy language and services will be essential to making cyber coverage more effective and accessible.

Reinsurers also play a critical role in maintaining market stability and capacity. By establishing clear cyber underwriting strategies for small-business portfolios, reinsurers can distinguish these from approaches designed for large enterprises, ensuring that cyber risk is managed appropriately across different segments.

CyberCube also noted that re/insurers should be aware of the growing role of AI in enabling threat actors to scan for vulnerable systems more quickly and at a larger scale than traditional methods, increasing the exposure of small and mid-sized businesses to opportunistic attacks.

CyberCube concluded, “By taking these steps, the industry can build a more resilient cyber insurance market that better protects small businesses against evolving threats. Addressing these gaps proactively will not only enhance coverage options but also contribute to broader cybersecurity resilience across the small business sector.”

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