Growing Reliance on Stand-Alone Cyber Insurance Policies Questioned by New Book 

Josephine Wolff offers the critique in her well-researched book, Cyberinsurance Policy: Rethinking Risk in an Age of Ransomware, Computer Fraud, Data Breaches, and Cyberattacks (MIT Press, 2022). Are insurers and insurtech companies placing too much emphasis on narrowly-defined cyber coverage, security controls and hacking data and not enough on holistic underwriting? “In trying to treat … Read more

Settlement by Zurich to Accelerate Tighter Insurance Exclusions for Nation/State-linked Cyber Attacks 

Insurers have tried to avoid paying claims related to Russia’s NotPetya cyber attacks on Ukrainian targets. “Now, however, it’s increasingly clear insurers aren’t off the hook for NotPetya payouts or from covering losses from other attacks with clear links to nation-state hackers…” “’We’re going to need to rethink what act of war means in cyberspace … Read more

When Does It Make Sense to Use Captives for Cyber Insurance? 

This report, written by the team @TheGrahamCo, casts doubt on using a “new captive” for cyber risk, as captives are commonly used for “high-frequency, low-severity” claims, while cyber attacks are often low-frequency and high-severity. Captives make more sense if they’re “mature” and have enough surplus capital to cover substantial losses. “If your organization has a … Read more

Cyber Insurance Claim Rates & More in WSJ Pro Research Survey

The survey includes useful info on a number of topics we discuss here, such as the difference between largeco/smallco cyber insurance purchasing and increased costs and difficulties in buying such insurance. What caught our eye was the data on cyber claims: “Finally, we asked whether respondents had made a claim against their cyber insurance in … Read more

“Fraudulent Instruction” Attacks Surge: Beazley 

We’ve seen such attacks. They’re tricky, often made possible by poor cyber hygiene, and require attention to detail by employees as a final defense (“Boss, are we really supposed to send this wire transfer to a bank in China?”) As Beazley defines it: “Fraudulent Instruction is the transfer of funds by an employee, outside of … Read more

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