ConnectWise’s Newest Partnerships Makes Cyber Insurance ‘So Easy’ For MSPs
‘We‘re going make it a little easier for MSPs to get cyber insurance and show that they actually have done the things that reduce the risk,’ says Raffael Marty, general manager of cybersecurity at ConnectWise
ConnectWise has launched two integrated partnerships that will take the guesswork out of cyber insurance for MSPs and their customers.
During its IT Nation Secure event in Orlando, Florida this week, ConnectWise unveiled its partnerships with ControlCase, a compliance-as-a-service provider, and FifthWall, a cyber insurance broker, to provide education, automation and assistance to help MSPs prepare for and procure insurance, eliminating dozens of steps they and their customers would otherwise have to take.
“We‘re going to make it a little easier for MSPs to get cyber insurance and show that they actually have done the things that reduce the risk,” said Raffael Marty, general manager of cybersecurity at ConnectWise.
ControlCase built a ConnectWise manage application that guides the MSP through a cybersecurity assessment via a questionnaire. When partners and their customers are ready, Fifthwall Solutions then provides insurance quotes from more than 35 carriers, simplifying the process and leading to a higher percentage of insurable MSPs and their clients.
Marty said ControlCase built an application that is free for MSPs to fill out a questionnaire to assess the security of their themselves and their customers. One they’re in, they can go in and remediate those problems and vulnerabilities.
[Related: FifthWall Helps MSPs Have The Cyber Insurance ‘Conversation’ With Customers]
“With the click of a button, it translates all that information and answers from the security questionnaire and sends it over to FifthWall,” he said.
Patrick Beggs, chief information security officer of Tampa, Florida-based ConnectWise, said the company is bringing in third parties to take a look at the organization and do penetration tests.
“My biggest focus is on our application security program,” he said. “From a people process and technology standpoint, it’s bringing in whatever we need to what I call the left of boom. It’s being able to identify vulnerabilities and deflect defects before they‘re put into a production environment, but also creating and strengthening our partner relationship. My team goes to battle stations to prove it’s not a cyber event, that‘s our mentality.”
The integrations are the next step to ease cyber insurance woes as it becomes harder and harder for MSPs to get insurance, Marty said.
He said these solutions make it easier for MSPs to work and work with ConnectWise’s products.
“We‘re starting to integrate these products with each other,” he said. “We’re integrating the security products into billing and ticketing with managing RMM. You’re seeing security playing everywhere in the different products and integrating everything with each other,” he said.
Nikhil Jagga, president of CMIT Solutions, a Hopewell Junction, N.Y.-based MSP, loves the way they‘re integrating products.
“I’m in the process of doing insurance assessments and it just takes a long, long time,” he said. “I like that the process has been streamlined and I like they‘re taking the research that they do and how they’re bringing that into their products, which then obviously benefits MSPs. I liked the fact that ConnectWise is investing so much in the cybersecurity research part, but it‘s not just academic. They take that and they make it really real into the products for us.”