Security Solution Provider AsTech Provides $1 Million Guarantee For Qualys Managed Service Offering

Security solution provider AsTech has launched a $1 million guarantee for implementation, configuration and management of a Qualys Service subscription, the company announced Monday.

The launch is part of a budding trend of vendors and solution providers offering guarantees for their security services or products in the event of a data breach.

The AsTech guarantee, called AsTech Vigilance for Managed Qualys Services, includes a guarantee that AsTech will set up the Qualys vulnerability management solution in such a way that it will "detect everything that can be detected," Chief Security Strategist Nathan Wenzler said. Once set up, he said AsTech would guarantee up to $1 million to cover the costs of a data breach (defined as a breach of a security system, public disclosure of confidential business information, or end-user account take over).

[Related: SentinelOne Launches Partner-Ready Program Guaranteeing Its Endpoint Security Foils Ransomware Attacks]

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The offering, which is sold as an add-on subscription, includes terms and conditions, under which AsTech has a certain amount of time to catch a problem and fix it. Wenzler said he views the offering as a warranty of sorts for AsTech work and services.

"It is a new concept for people, but once they hear it they respond very strongly to it," Wenzler said. "What we're bringing to the table is… you don't have to settle for shoddy services. You can get the assurance that you will get the work done right."

The new offering builds on guarantees already offered by AsTech around its application security program, the area of the security market it has historically focused on. That program is called the Paragon Security Program and guarantees customers up to $5 million.

"This is another service we are backing up with a guarantee against data breaches. This ensures that our customers receive both the best security implementations and programs in the business, as well as the assurance of a financial guarantee in the event they experience a data breach," CEO Greg Reber said in a statement about the launch.

As more customers turn to risk mitigation as a focal point of their security strategy – rather than prevention – the industry is seeing a rise in cyber insurance. According to Allied Market Research, the market for cyber insurance is expected to reach $14 billion by 2022. Companies, including SentinelOne, have also launched financial guarantees for their products against a breach.

Wenzler said he expects more and more security partners and vendors will offer guarantees and warranties for their products. He said more customers are demanding this type of guarantee, as it helps mitigate the risk posed by an increasing amount of breaches and also holds the vendor or solution provider accountable for delivering their services as marketed.

"I think given time, it is absolutely going to have to [grow]. The number of data breaches we're seeing every year is going up … and the damages are just getting bigger," Wenzler said. "We have been trying to attack this problem from a technical standpoint for a long time, and we're getting better at it, but it is an arms race. Insurance is the next way to mitigate this risk, and it's the next place to go to get another tool to mitigate the problem."

Wenzler said he had received good reviews from customers so far on the new offering. The company said it has also not had a customer experience a data breach to date, and plans to continue that trend under this new guarantee. Wenzler said the solution provider plans to continue expanding its security guarantee offerings into other areas of its business in the coming months.

"It's our intention to expand this," Wenzler said. "I don't think insurance itself will lead to fewer breaches, but the insurance will force the vendors and partners to do a whole lot better around security," he said.