South Africa’s SMEs have been handed a meaningful boost in the country’s increasingly difficult cyber insurance landscape. At a time when insurers are tightening requirements and many smaller organisations are struggling to qualify for cover, access to affordable, enterprise-grade cyber security is beginning to shift the balance in favour of businesses that were previously locked out of the market.
Cyber security insurance has quietly moved from an IT line item to a board-level concern for South African small and mid-sized businesses. As cyber incidents become more frequent, disruptive and costly, insurers are responding by hardening underwriting criteria, increasing premiums and demanding far stronger proof of cyber maturity before offering cover.
For many SMEs, the implications are stark. Organisations that cannot demonstrate adequate cyber security controls are increasingly finding themselves uninsurable, exposing themselves to uninsured losses, regulatory fallout and, more and more frequently, a direct threat to business continuity.
Insurers now require clear evidence of effective controls across e-mail security, endpoint protection, identity and access management, data protection, backup and recovery, monitoring and incident response. For businesses without dedicated security teams, meeting these requirements has traditionally meant deploying multiple costly tools, engaging with external consultants and navigating lengthy assessment processes. All before a policy is even approved.
“Cyber insurance conversations have changed dramatically,” says Heinrich Fourie, COO of Symbiosys, a global IT solutions and integrations consultancy. “Insurers are no longer interested in theoretical policies or box-ticking. They want to see that security controls are real, consistently applied and actively managed.”
Forward-thinking SMEs are beginning to recognise a critical shift: cyber insurance is not the solution to cyber risk, it is the outcome of managing that risk properly. Insurers want confidence that exposure is actively reduced, not merely transferred.
This is where a unified, cloud-native security foundation becomes essential.
Coro, delivered locally by Symbiosys, was built specifically to address the realities SMEs face. Rather than forcing organisations to stitch together multiple products, Coro consolidates key security capabilities, including e-mail, endpoint, identity, data protection and automated remediation, into a single, centrally managed platform.
“From an insurer’s perspective, fragmentation is risk,” Fourie explains. “When controls are spread across multiple tools and vendors, gaps inevitably appear. A unified platform like Coro simplifies management and makes it far easier for businesses to demonstrate maturity during insurance assessments.”
Through completed certification and enablement processes with Coro, Symbiosys helps SMEs align their security environments with common cyber insurance expectations. While no solution bypasses insurer underwriting, this alignment significantly reduces friction, uncertainty and avoidable cost during application and renewal cycles.
Turning insurance from an obstacle into an advantage
As insurers continue to raise the bar, SMEs that invest in genuine cyber security readiness will be better positioned to secure cover, negotiate terms and maintain long-term insurability.
“Cyber insurance is ultimately about preparedness,” Fourie concludes. “When the right controls are already in place, the insurance conversation becomes faster, clearer and far more constructive.”
For South African SMEs looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, simplifying cyber security may be the most effective step they can take towards making cyber insurance achievable, affordable and sustainable. Contact solutions@symbiosys.it for more information on implementing the Coro solution in your environment.
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