Proactiveness Is Becoming the New Standard.
Cyber insurance has changed noticeably over the past year. As 2025 closes out, many small and medium-sized businesses may find that renewals feel more involved than they used to be.
This isn’t about insurers being difficult. It’s a response to rising attacks, payment fraud attempts, and ransomware incidents across the region. Insurers want more than a once-off form. They’re looking for clear signs that a business is paying attention to its digital risk and taking small but meaningful steps to manage it.
The good news: you don’t need complex systems or enterprise budgets. You just need to show that you’re being proactive.
Why Proactive Effort Matters More Than Ever
Most cyber incidents affecting SMEs aren’t sophisticated. They’re simple, predictable, and often preventable. That includes fake invoices, supplier impersonations, payroll redirection scams, and ransomware delivered through an email.
When these attacks happen, insurers see the same pattern – businesses with even a few basic proactive measures suffer far less financial and operational damage than those with none.
This is why underwriters increasingly look for signs of ongoing effort, not perfection. They want to understand whether a business is trying to reduce risk in the real world, not only on paper.
What Insurers Are Starting to Look For
You don’t need a cybersecurity department to show that you’re engaged. Most of what underwriters now ask about revolves around simple, practical steps like:
- Whether important accounts use multi-factor authentication
- Whether staff have had recent awareness training
- Whether backups have been tested
- Whether you have a short incident-response plan
- Whether someone has run an external vulnerability scan to check what’s visible online
- Whether you’ve implemented SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to stop criminals spoofing your domain
These controls dramatically reduce the likelihood of common cyber events. They’re not complex to adopt, and they signal to insurers that your risk is being managed actively.
Why Proactive SMEs Renew More Smoothly
Underwriters don’t expect SMEs to have airtight security. They simply want to see reasonable care.
If you can show that you’ve tested your backups, scanned your external exposure, turned on MFA, and set up DMARC properly (p=reject), you’re already way ahead of many businesses they assess. These small actions build confidence that you’re less likely to face avoidable losses – and that if something does happen, you’ll recover more quickly.
Businesses that demonstrate this level of engagement tend to experience:
- Faster, smoother renewals
- More confidence from insurers
- Fewer technical questions
- More clarity around their risk
- More stable pricing over time
Proactiveness is a signal of maturity, not complexity.
How SMEs Can Strengthen Their Renewal Preparation for 2026
Here are simple, proactive actions most SMEs can implement quickly:
- Run an external vulnerability scan
Know what attackers can see. Close anything that shouldn’t be exposed. - Refresh your team’s awareness
A discussion about fake payments, suspicious links, and invoice fraud can prevent major losses. - Test your backups
Recover a small set of files. This confirms whether your recovery process actually works. - Improve account security
Turn on multi-factor authentication for critical services and remove old user accounts. - Set up basic email authentication
SPF and DKIM help validate your emails. DMARC enforces them and helps prevent domain spoofing. - Keep simple documentation
Notes, screenshots, and reminders are enough to show what you’ve done.
You don’t need deep technical expertise to get started. What matters is making steady progress in the right areas and getting help where you need it.
Proactive Step 1: Strengthen Your External Posture with CyberProfiler
CyberProfiler gives you an Attacker’s Eye View™ of your organisation. It shows which assets are publicly exposed and highlights the issues cybercriminals commonly exploit.
It helps SMEs:
- Understand what’s visible online
- Prioritise which risks to fix first
- Demonstrate proactive assessment to insurers
- Prepare clear evidence ahead of renewal
Explore CyberProfiler: https://armd.digital/product/cyberprofiler/
Proactive Step 2: Protect Your Domain with DMARC
Email impersonation remains one of the most common ways criminals defraud South African businesses. Attackers often impersonate suppliers, executives, or accounts staff to redirect payments or steal credentials.
In practice, setting up SPF and DKIM is a good start, but DMARC is what prevents attackers from sending fake emails using your domain. Without DMARC, anyone can attempt to impersonate your business – often without your knowledge.
Having DMARC in place shows insurers and partners that you’re actively reducing a major attack route that affects thousands of SMEs every year.
Learn more about DMARC Protection – book a free meeting for a one-on-one session: https://armd.digital/dmarc/
Proactive Beats Perfect
As we head into 2026, insurers are looking for signs of awareness, consistency, and practical effort. They’re not expecting advanced defences. They’re looking for businesses that are paying attention and taking action.
A business that scans its exposure, protects its domain, trains its staff, and tests its backups is already ahead of the curve. As a result, those habits make you more resilient, easier to insure, and better positioned to recover when things go wrong.
Begin small, take simple steps, and keep moving forward.
A CyberProfiler scan and DMARC Protection are two of the most meaningful steps you can take toward a stronger 2026 renewal.
