Both companies see Cork’s focus on loss control when a cyberattack takes place as highly complementary to Liongard’s Configuration Change Detection and Response services, and they are offering a discount to MSPs who sell both solutions.
Michelle Accardi, Liongard’s CEO
ORLANDO – Configuration Change Detection and Response [CCDR] provider Liongard has partnered with cyberwarranty provider Cork to make Cork’s cyberwarranty coverage available to the customers of Liongard’s MSPs. The two companies see their respective focuses as highly complementary. They are making a discounted bundle offering available to MSP customers, which will be available as of November 15. ChannelBuzz caught up with executives from both companies in attendance at the IT Nation show here, and got further details about the deal.
“We have put a lot of work into Configuration Change Detection and Response, which enables IT governance and cyber risk mitigation,” said Michelle Accardi, who took over as CEO at Liongard in April 2023, with former CEO Joe Alapat moving to the CTO role. “What we do can be helpful to Cork in their underwriting of these policies.”
While the number of companies offering cyber insurance to MSP customers has increased in the last two years, this isn’t really what Cork does. They offer a cyber assurance product rather than cyber insurance or a warranty. Their focus is on make sure that the carrier and vendor are accountable to protect an attack. Cork invests in engineering to prevent attacks from happening, and their loss control is about doing a better job to prevent an attack from happening, and then covering the losses for the MSP until insurance is paid..
Carlson Choi, Cork’s CEO
“Whenever a breach happens, somebody has to be the bank,” said Carlson Choi, Cork’s CEO. “It’s usually the MSP – and there is a bill. It’s how we alleviate the most stressful moment in the life of an MSP.”
“The thing I love about Cork is that if a breach happens, Cork issues them a credit card,” Accardi said. “That doesn’t happen in the cyber warrantry space.”
This is the first vendor agreement of this type that Cork has made.
“This is a first,” Choi stated. “The goal is to make underwriting less painful. This partnership makes a lot of sense because configuration means less risk.”
The partnership came together quickly.
“Joe found material on Cork, and he asked if they were additive or competitive from our perspective,” Accardi said. “We reached out to them and we really saw the value in each other’s solutions. Both Joe and myself had been MSPs and we saw the pain if you aren’t constantly monitoring for configuration issues.”
Joe Alapat, Liongard’s CTO
“We started talking in October, and we quickly brought the technologies together,” Choi indicated.
“It’s all about reducing risk for the MSP and the end customer,” Alapat said. “The cyber resilience and financial resilience are closely related.”
Choi noted that the insurance process is lengthy and stringent when it comes to filling out reams of forms.
“If you check the wrong box you can have a claim denied,” Choi said.
“In one case, the MFA had been turned off, allowing a cryptominer to run up $300,000 on a Microsoft Azure bill,” Accardi noted. “The insurance company refused to pay, saying there was no proof that the MFA was on. We can show the MSP’s MFA was on before it was turned off. We can also help with billing reconciliation, IT asset discovery, and show what’s not patched. Now we provide those plus the benefit that Cork brings.”
Liongard’s Cyber Risk dashboard
The Liongard and Cork bundled solution is available starting November 15, 2023, to MSPs in the U.S. and Canada through new and existing Liongard partners. By purchasing Cork and Liongard bundled together, customers will save $10 per month Existing Liongard and Cork customers will also be eligible for the discounted bundle offering.
“We have put this offer in place for a quarter, and we will see how it goes,” Choi said.
“We have partnerships with some of some of those insurance brokerages as well, but Cork is a unique solution,” Accardi said. For companies who already have cyber insurance, it gives them gap protection to pay the deductible.”
“We don’t replace insurance,” Choi added. “We provide that gap coverage, and the customer can use any stack they prefer.”
“Businesses are being much more selective about costs today,” Alapat said. “They aren’t in the old mode of ‘let’s go try this out’. You have to fight to show value, and this provides real value.”
“Partners will have an opportunity to mark this up,” Accardi said. “Some People will add it into their bundle package. Others will sell it one by one, but they will all have the opportunity to monetize it and generate revenue. We haven’t got this excited about something in a long time, and believe this is a game-changing offering.”
