The US-based Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) explains in collaboration with the US National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) in their campaign "See Yourself in Cyber" the role of the human factor in cybersecurity and highlights four essential things that every company should ensure for better preparedness:

• Enable multi-factor authentication
• Use strong passwords
• Recognize and report phishing
• Update & patch your software

Their European partners European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) as well as the European Commission, the EU Member States and hundreds of relevant stakeholders from all over the globe, will run their cybersecurity campaign under the motto "Think before you click". The focus lies here on education about the two main threat vectors: Phishing and Ransomware. And so we come full circle to the US campaign, because here too it is the human being who, with a thoughtless click, does not start the disaster, but unlocks its full potential by providing initial access.

Munich Re supports these informational and educational efforts and all respective initiatives that foster cyber resilience and preparedness. For over a decade, we are developing holistic cyber insurance solutions together with our clients. We strongly believe that knowledge transfer is a crucial part of our joint journey to a more cyber-secure world and a sustainable cyber insurance market. Especially the latter requires the collaboration of all of us: What security agencies recommend as protection standards is for the insurance industry the minimum requirement for access to the cyber insurance market. This is why three of the above mentioned security controls (patch-, access-, and password management) are regarded as minimum requirements. What we all want to prevent are cyberattacks that hit their victims without proper or worst case any defense.

So let's join forces and enhance our cybersecurity – during this year's Cybersecurity Month and beyond!