Renewal time comes around, the cyber insurance form lands in your inbox, and it reads like a test you didn't study for. Multi-factor what? Endpoint which? It's easy to feel like the honest answer to every question is "I'm not sure."

Here's the reassuring part: insurers aren't trying to catch you out. They ask these questions because a small handful of gaps sit behind most claims. Once you know what they're really asking, the form gets a lot less intimidating.

The questions that come up almost every time

Do you use multi-factor authentication (MFA)? This is the big one: a code or tap on top of your password. Insurers care most about it on email, remote access, and admin accounts. If you do one thing before filling in the form, turn this on.

Do you back up your data, and have you tested restoring it? They want to know a ransomware attack wouldn't wipe you out. Bonus points if a copy is kept separate or offline, and if you've actually checked the backups work.

How quickly do you apply updates? Out-of-date software is the door most attackers walk through. "We update promptly" beats "we get to it eventually."

Do you have antivirus or endpoint protection on your devices? A basic yes/no, but they'll want it on everything, not just the office PC.

Do your staff get any security awareness training? Because most attacks start with someone clicking something. Even light, regular training counts.

Do you have a plan for when something goes wrong? An incident response plan, even a one-pager of "who we call and what we do", is worth a tick.

Who has admin access? They're checking that the keys to everything aren't handed out to everyone.

A word on honesty. It's tempting to tick "yes" to look good. Don't. If you ever need to claim and it turns out an answer wasn't accurate, the insurer can refuse to pay, which is a far worse outcome than a slightly higher premium. Answer honestly, and treat any "no" as a to-do, not a failure.

You don't need every box ticked to get cover. But each genuine "yes" tends to lower both your premium and your actual risk. And if the form is making you sweat, that's usually a sign of one or two real gaps worth closing.

Stuck on a questionnaire, or not sure whether your "yes" is really a yes? That's exactly the kind of thing a free consultation sorts out in half an hour.