Apple and Cisco Systems have teamed up on an initiative they claim should enable businesses to secure cheaper cyber security insurance.

The tech giants shared a stage in Las Vegas to pitch the idea that if companies are using a combination of their respective technologies, which both claim are more secure than rivals such as Android, then this should be reflected in the pricing of premiums.

There were few details of how this would work in practical terms, but Apple CEO Tim Cook (pictured) said: “The thinking we share here is that if your enterprise or company is using Cisco and Apple, the combination of these should make [cyber-security] insurance cost significantly less. This is something we’re going to spend some energy on. You should reap that benefit.”

Cisco elaborated a little further in a blog post, stating that the partners were “collaborating with insurance industry heavyweights… to offer more robust policies to customers.”

One area the company is looking at is continuous security monitoring, with checks and balances available to insurers so they can see if systems have been set up and configured correctly.

It’s an interesting development, which will almost certainly illicit a response from rivals in the corporate IT and software sectors.