The industrial sector is facing much tougher conditions in the cyber insurance market. Policies are increasingly excluding coverage for attacks tied to nation-state actors or “war-like” events. Insurers are imposing stricter requirements, especially for organizations that use operational technology (OT), demanding things like full asset inventories, detailed risk profiles, Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs), strong network segmentation, continuous monitoring, and comprehensive incident response planning. Legacy equipment, gaps in patching, safety constraints, and complex OT environments make underwriting risk more difficult, leading to higher premiums, stricter renewals, or even refusals of coverage.

Because proving that an attack came specifically from a nation-state is technically complex and often inconclusive—especially in OT settings where logging and visibility are limited—many insured organizations risk having claims denied. Insurers are adapting by changing their models, focusing more on resilience metrics such as recovery time, containment ability, business continuity planning, and compliance with standards like IEC/IEC-62443. Incentives (like premium discounts) exist for firms that improve their OT security postures, but these are unevenly applied and often limited. There’s growing demand for insurers to have specialized OT/ICS expertise to evaluate risk accurately, but many industrial clients struggle with policy terms, potential exclusions, and demonstrating compliance in ways that satisfy both insurers and their own operational constraints.

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Source: https://industrialcyber.co/features/industrial-sector-faces-tougher-cyber-insurance-landscape-with-escalating-premiums-coverage-gaps/