Using just a domain name — Underwriting insurance

You can tell a lot regarding a firm by its domain name.

Browser image with domain name starting with https

Anyone who has applied for business insurance knows what a colossal pain it is. You have to provide information that ought to be easily obtainable by the insurance broker.

Now one Canadian insurance underwriter promises to write cyber security insurance based on one piece of information: a firm’s domain name.

CFC Underwriting states it can learn a lot regarding a firm by only knowing the firm’s domain name. In an interview with Canadian Underwriter, CFC’s chief innovation officer Graeme Newman stated it can determine:

Address
Estimate of number of employees
Revenue estimate
Email systems used and what security is applied to it
Websites, hosts and the security applied to those sites
How many employee credentials are exposed on the dark web

You can definitely get a lot of this information–or at least start to ascertain it–by knowing a firm’s domain name. CFC Underwriting is taking an intelligent approach to onboarding fresh insureds.

Also on the wire