Last year, a mid-sized healthcare provider faced a crippling ransomware attack. The CFO, newly hired from outside the industry, believed the company’s cyber insurance policy would cover the fallout. It didn’t. Exclusions buried in the policy left millions in losses uninsured—downtime costs, patient data recovery, and regulatory fines were only partially reimbursed.
Contrast that with a manufacturing CFO who, before renewing coverage, insisted on a quantitative cyber risk assessment. By understanding the company’s true exposure and aligning coverage with actual risks, she not only secured better terms but also gained the confidence of the board when the inevitable “what if?” questions arose.
The difference? One CFO assumed cyber insurance was a safety net. The other CFO proved resilience with data-driven due diligence.
The Rising Stakes for CFOs
Cyber risk is now a balance-sheet issue. A 2024 Wall Street Journal CFO survey revealed that more than 70% of CFOs cite cyber risk as a top-three concern, alongside inflation and regulatory pressure. Yet many admit they lack clarity on what their cyber insurance does—or doesn’t—cover.
As one Fortune 500 CFO put it: “Cyber insurance is not a silver bullet. If you don’t understand your risk exposure in financial terms, you can’t expect coverage to match reality.”
The CFO’s Role in Cyber Insurability
While CISOs manage firewalls and detection tools, CFOs must translate cyber threats into dollars, risk tolerances, and insurance adequacy. The questions go far beyond IT:
- What is the true cost of an hour of downtime in our operations?
- Do our policy sub-limits for breach response or ransomware reflect our actual exposure?
- Are third-party vendors and cloud partners introducing uninsured risks we’ve overlooked?
This is where many CFOs stumble. Compliance frameworks like SOC 2 or HIPAA create comfort, but insurers and boards increasingly demand proof of operational resilience, not just checkmarks.
The CFO Cyber Insurability Checklist
To help CFOs in growth-stage companies ($25M–$500M in revenue) navigate this terrain, SeedPod Cyber has developed the CFO’s Cyber Insurability Checklist.
It covers seven critical domains:
- Financial & Operational Resilience – quantifying exposure in real dollars.
- Technical & Procedural Controls – confirming security baselines with IT.
- Third-Party Risk – mapping data flows and vendor dependencies.
- Privacy & Data Handling – staying compliant across state and global laws.
- Incident Response & Recovery – testing how fast you can bounce back.
- Insurance Wording & Coverage – decoding exclusions, sub-limits, and insurer expectations.
- Governance & Board Reporting – ensuring accountability and transparency at the highest level.
This isn’t a compliance checklist—it’s a CFO’s playbook for bridging finance, risk, and resilience.
Why This Matters Now
Regulators, boards, and insurers are converging on the same demand: quantify and prove your resilience. CFOs who can articulate cyber risk in financial terms not only strengthen insurability but also elevate their credibility as strategic leaders.
In the words of another CFO interviewed by Deloitte: “Our investors expect us to talk about cyber risk the same way we talk about FX risk or supply chain risk—quantified, measured, and managed.”
Download the CFO Cyber Insurability Checklist to start a structured conversation with your executive team, IT leaders, and insurance broker.
Your balance sheet—and your credibility—may depend on it.