Mike Stoveken

The GLBA Safeguards Rule (16 CFR Part 314) requires most state-registered RIAs to run a written information security program, and even the small-firm exception for under 5,000 clients only waives four of ten required elements, not the rule itself. Two different federal regulators enforce cybersecurity rules on investment advisors. Which one has authority over a … Read more

 Cyber insurers don’t treat all MFA the same in 2026. “Enforced” means every account that touches email, remote access, or admin systems requires it, no exceptions, and CISA itself ranks the method you use from phishing-resistant down to SMS, the weakest option on the list. Two different questions get collapsed into one on most … Read more

 New York’s 23 NYCRR 500 cybersecurity regulation names insurance agents and brokers directly as covered entities, and even agencies small enough to qualify for the limited exemption still have to file an annual compliance certification, run a risk assessment, and enforce MFA. Most agency owners I talk to have heard of this regulation in … Read more

 Most cyber insurance applications now ask about multi-factor authentication, endpoint detection and response, and tested offline backups, since federal cybersecurity guidance names all three as baseline controls insurers expect before writing or renewing a policy. Fill out the application the way you did three years ago and something will get flagged. Not rejected, necessarily. … Read more

Cyber insurers no longer take an applicant’s word for it. Having multi-factor authentication, EDR, and tested backups in place only helps your renewal if you can also produce records proving each one, on demand, which is a separate project from actually running the controls themselves. I see this gap constantly. A business has genuinely solid … Read more

 Antivirus blocks files that match a known threat signature. EDR watches behavior across a device and can isolate or roll back an attack in progress, and that gap in capability is exactly what cyber insurers now probe for separately on renewal applications. Ten years ago, “we have antivirus” closed that line item. Nobody asked … Read more

 The first 24 hours of a ransomware incident follow a specific sequence: isolate affected systems immediately, preserve evidence before touching anything further, notify the right stakeholders in the right order, and resist the urge to reboot, wipe, or pay before consulting anyone. Skip a step and recovery gets slower, not faster. Most business owners … Read more