Collaborate Disseminate
Tarah Wheeler and Josephine Wolff analyze a recent court decision that the NotPetya attacks are not considered an act of war under the wording of Merck’s insurance policy, and that the insurers must pay the $1B+ claim. Wheeler and Wolff argue tha… Continue reading Insurance Coverage for NotPetya Losses
The insurance company Ace American has to pay for the losses:
On 6th December 2021, the New Jersey Superior Court granted partial summary judgment (attached) in favour of Merck and International Indemnity, declaring that the War or Hostile Acts exclusion was inapplicable to the dispute.
Merck suffered US$1.4 billion in business interruption losses from the Notpetya cyber attack of 2017 which were claimed against “all risks” property re/insurance policies providing coverage for losses resulting from destruction or corruption of computer data and software…
Continue reading Merck Wins Insurance Lawsuit re NotPetya Attack
Ransomware attacks aren’t just becoming more frequent, they’re getting more expensive. Scammers demanded an average payment of $5.3 million from hacking victims through the first six months of 2021, though extortion victims paid a median fee in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to a new report from the insurer Allianz. The $5.3 million average represents a 518% increase from the 2020 figure, driven in part by demands to pay up to $50 million after a data breach. The highest demand last year was for $30 million, according to the latest report, which did not identify affected organizations by name. Victims paid an average of $570,000 during the first six months, compared to $312,000 in 2020, Palo Alto Networks said. The figures, published Thursday by Allianz, represent the latest glimpse into how ransomware attacks are becoming exponentially more expensive as victim organizations look to insurance providers to cover the […]
The post Ransomware demands are up more than 500%, the latest concern for insurers appeared first on CyberScoop.
Continue reading Ransomware demands are up more than 500%, the latest concern for insurers
Ascend is moving insurance into the digital age by with a payments platform that combines financing, collections and payables. Continue reading Ascend raises $5.5M to provide a BNPL option for commercial insurance
The White House summit Wednesday demonstrated positive momentum for both the Biden administration and private sector in terms of their approach to cybersecurity, but also laid bare what remains inadequate, cyber experts said. The high-profile meeting brought together CEOs from the education, energy, finance, insurance and tech sectors, featuring companies like Amazon, Bank of America and ConocoPhillips. Some pledged billions more in cyber investments, while others committed to providing training and smaller services in response to the administration’s “call to action.” While impressive, observers noted, those commitments will require considerable follow-up, from expansion to other sectors to policy changes that could emerge from closer-knit relationships between industry and government. Even as the nonprofit Global Cyber Alliance’s Megan Stifel commended the White House for holding the meeting and the broad commitments that the companies made, she said it illustrated the lengths to which the U.S. can improve national cybersecurity. “A couple […]
The post White House cyber summit with private sector nets impressive gains, but points to considerable work needed ahead appeared first on CyberScoop.
President Joe Biden will huddle Wednesday with industry leaders to issue a “call to action” on cybersecurity and make “concrete announcements” to counter the fundamental causes of cyberattacks, according to a senior administration official. It’s a star-studded afternoon gathering scheduled to include the likes of Apple CEO Tim Cook and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon from the financial, technology, energy, insurance and education sectors, then feature discussions led by top administration officials. The White House has been working to secure commitments from industry in advance of the meeting, mostly in the areas of “technology and talent,” the official said in a background call with reporters on Tuesday. Two points of emphasis, the official said, are building technology that is secure from the outset, and better defending critical infrastructure after the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline led to a fuel scare. “We need to bake in security by design into tech,” […]
The post Apple, JPMorgan Chase bosses among industry heads set to gather at White House for cyber ‘call to action’ appeared first on CyberScoop.
It’s a sure sign of trouble when leading insurance industry executives are worried about their own prices going up. Two separate CEOs of major insurance giants remarked in recent weeks about a considerable jump in cyber insurance premium prices: AIG’s chief executive said rates increased by 40% for its clients, while Chubb’s chief executive said that company was charging more, too. Rather than welcoming the trend, Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg offered a warning. Those price increases, he said, still don’t reflect the grave risk that a catastrophic cyber event poses. “That is not addressing by itself the fundamental issue,” he said. Those are just two data points about how, in the past year, the evolution of ransomware has radically altered the landscape of cyber insurance, according to analysts inside and outside the industry. Cyber insurance covers a range of ransomware-related costs, like extortion demands, remediation efforts and other losses. Ransomware […]
The post Cyber insurance market encounters ‘crisis moment’ as ransomware costs pile up appeared first on CyberScoop.
Continue reading Cyber insurance market encounters ‘crisis moment’ as ransomware costs pile up
Ransomware struck Japan’s largest property and casualty insurer, Tokio Marine Holdings, at its Singapore branch, the company disclosed on Monday. Tokio Marine, which has a U.S. division and offers a cyber insurance product, said it did not have any immediate indication that any customer information was breached. Such data could be a smorgasbord for hackers who would use the data to extort victims based on their coverage amounts. It’s at least the third major insurer to disclose a ransomware attack in recent months, following CNA and AXA. And it’s the second insurer just this week, with Ryan Specialty Group — fresh off launching an initial public offering — to disclose a cyber incident. Cyber insurers have, of late, taken to asking more detailed questions about policyholders’ cybersecurity safeguards as a condition for providing coverage. But the spate of recent successful attacks suggests that insurers, too, might need to step up […]
The post Japan’s Tokio Marine is the latest insurer to be victimized by ransomware appeared first on CyberScoop.
Continue reading Japan’s Tokio Marine is the latest insurer to be victimized by ransomware
More than half of the U.S. population has stayed away from considering life insurance because they believe it’s probably too expensive, and the most common way to buy it today is in person. A startup that’s built a platform that aims to break down those conventions and democratize the process by making life insurance (and […] Continue reading Ethos picks up $100M at a $2.7B+ valuation for a big data platform to improve life insurance accessibility
Looking back, narrowly focusing on a branch of applied science undergoing a breakthrough paradigm shift that hadn’t yet reached the business world changed everything. Continue reading How we built an AI unicorn in 6 years