Test whether a cyber policy covers the modelled loss: limits, sub-limits, retention, waiting period and uninsured residual.
The headline limit is rarely what determines recovery. Business interruption sub-limits, a waiting period that excludes the first several hours, and the retention all reduce the claimable amount before the limit is ever reached — which is how a ten-million policy responds to a twelve-million loss with far less than ten. Control warranties are modelled explicitly because failing one is the most common cause of a reduced or denied claim. The number that matters is the uninsured residual, because that is what the business actually absorbs — and it is usually much larger than the gap between the loss and the limit.
Cyber Insurance Coverage
recoverable = min(policyLimit, max(0, claimable − retention)), where claimable applies the business interruption sub-limit and removes the loss falling inside the waiting period.
recoverable = min(policyLimit, max(0, claimable − retention)), where claimable applies the business interruption sub-limit and removes the loss falling inside the waiting period. The headline limit is rarely what determines recovery. Business interruption sub-limits, a waiting period that excludes the first several hours, and the retention all reduce the claimable amount before the limit is ever reached — which is how a ten-million policy responds to a twelve-million loss with far less than ten. Control warranties are modelled explicitly because failing one is the most common cause of a reduced or denied claim.
The number that matters is the uninsured residual, because that is what the business actually absorbs — and it is usually much larger than the gap between the loss and the limit.
This calculator takes 10 inputs: Modelled worst-case loss, Aggregate policy limit, Retention or deductible, Business interruption sub-limit, Business interruption portion of the loss, Business interruption waiting period, Expected outage length, Loss per hour of outage, Annual premium, Warranted controls fully in place. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.
Because it excludes the most expensive hours. A 12-hour waiting period against a 72-hour outage removes a sixth of the interruption loss from cover before any sub-limit applies, and it is one of the cheapest terms to negotiate down.
It depends on the wording, but the insurer may reduce or decline the claim on the basis of a misrepresentation in the application. The model halves the expected recovery to keep that risk visible; in practice the range runs from a modest reduction to nothing at all.