Cyber insurance prices dropped 15% in 2023

The ContraForce Lightning - Security Services Roundup provides a timely collection of news and insights for practitioners and business leaders at security service providers.?

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Cyber-insurance prices drop 15 percent as competition amongst providers grows?

According to a new report from London-based Howden Insurance, there was a 15 percent reduction in average cyber-insurance premium rates in 2023 compared to 2022. Read Howden’s statement .?

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OpenText, a supplier of cybersecurity and IT management solutions for MSPs, plans to lay off 1,200 employees and add 800 positions.?

The company reorganization will create new roles in sales, professional services and engineering. Read more .?

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Alphabet acquiring Wiz for $23 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.?

The cybersecurity startup focused on cloud security achieved $350 million in annual recurring revenue in 2023. Read more .?

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Phishing attacks targeting state and local governments are increasing?

According to the annual attack trends report from email security company Abnormal Security, observed phishing attempts on government offices rose by 360 percent between May of 2023 and 2024. Read their report findings .?

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National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) updated its guidelines that help private sector organizations that do business with the federal government protect sensitive data.?

NIST SP 800-171 guidelines have financial and operational impacts for SMBs that handle government controlled unclassified information (CUI). Read Barracuda’s blog .?

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Microsoft kicks off their 2025 fiscal year with new partner incentives?

Incentives include $150 million in pre-sales and post-sales investments for its Azure Innovate offering, an incremental $90 million tied to security and a tenfold increase for Copilot incentives. Read the Microsoft blog .?

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Microsoft has settled an antitrust complaint lodged by a European lobbying group over its cloud software licensing practices?

The complaint was filed in 2022 and alleged that Microsoft made it more expensive for customers to run its popular Office software on cloud servers that customers rented from competitors. As part of the settlement, Microsoft agreed to build a new product that will make it less costly to run its software on competitors’ cloud servers. Read more .?