---
title: "The checkbox"
description: "One line on a cyber insurance application, the MFA question, and why the insurer reads your answer again after a claim."
url: "https://northcreektechnology.com/notes/the-checkbox/"
author: "Andrew Healey"
published: "2026-10-15"
updated: "2026-10-15"
tags:
  - "cyber-insurance"
  - "field-note"
---

# The checkbox

There's one line on a cyber insurance application that matters more than the rest: "Do you use multi-factor authentication for all remote access?"

Someone checks yes. Usually the IT company, sometimes the office manager, often in a hurry. Email has MFA. The VPN doesn't. The accounting server doesn't.

That application isn't paperwork. It's what the insurer reads again after a claim. In 2022, an insurer went to court to cancel a company's policy after a ransomware attack, because the application said MFA and it only covered the firewall. The company agreed to the cancellation.

The question isn't whether you have MFA. It's whether every "yes" on that form is true today, and who checked.

When did someone last read your application against what's actually turned on?

I wrote up the questions that cause the most trouble, and how to check each one: [Is your cyber insurance application true?](/guides/cyber-insurance-application/)

Source: [Lockton on Travelers v. ICS](https://global.lockton.com/us/en/news-insights/travelers-v-ics-underscores-need-to-respond-carefully-to-cyber-insurance).