A new report from the Cyber Risk Intelligence Center (CRIC) of Marsh McLennan (MMC), has found that cyber incident response planning is a key factor in cybersecurity.
The report, Cybersecurity signals: Connecting controls and incident outcomes, found that organizations are 13 percent less likely to experience a cyber event if they plan for and practice their responses to cyber-attacks than those that do not. That planning can include tabletop exercises and scenario-based breach response drills.
The company started research into the correlation between the 12 cybersecurity control tracked by cyber insurers and the likelihood of a cyber claim in 2023. CRIC’s analysis has found that cyber incident response planning is ranked as the fourth most effective control in decreasing an organization’s probability of experiencing a breach-based claim. Other controls included endpoint detection and response (EDR), logging and monitoring and cybersecurity awareness training and phishing testing.
“Marsh has long advocated proactive cyber incident response planning as a tool to help organizations effectively and efficiently respond to and recover from a cyberattack,” Tom Reagan, Global Cyber Practice Leader with MMC, said. “What our latest research confirms is that thoughtful planning also drives secondary benefits like positive security behaviors and strong control implementations, which help build more organizational resilience and reduce breach incidents.”
The report also said deploying and managing other cybersecurity controls helped reduce the likelihood of a claim. Steps like EDR and multi-factor authentication were both found to lower breach likelihood.
“Our findings emphasize that simply deploying key cybersecurity controls is no longer enough—these tools must be properly managed and comprehensively used,” Scott Stransky, head of CRIC, said. “By drawing on our insights, organizations can make informed decisions to strengthen their security frameworks and help reduce their exposure to cyber risks.”