New paper: “Lessons Lost: Incident Response in the Age of Cyber Insurance and Breach Attorneys“: Abstract: Incident Response (IR) allows victim firms to detect, contain, and recover from security incidents. It should also help the wider community avoid similar attacks in the future. In pursuit of these goals, technical practitioners are increasingly influenced by stakeholders … Read More “How Attorneys Are Harming Cybersecurity Incident Response” »
Category: insurance
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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 that the judge “did the right thing for the wrong reasons..” Powered by WPeMatico
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 … Read More “Merck Wins Insurance Lawsuit re NotPetya Attack” »
As ransomware becomes more common, I’m seeing more discussions about the ethics of paying the ransom. Here’s one more contribution to that issue: a research paper that the insurance industry is hurting more than it’s helping. However, the most pressing challenge currently facing the industry is ransomware. Although it is a societal problem, cyber insurers … Read More “Insurance and Ransomware” »
Interesting article discussing cyber-warranties, and whether they are an effective way to transfer risk (as envisioned by Ackerlof’s “market for lemons”) or a marketing trick. The conclusion: Warranties must transfer non-negligible amounts of liability to vendors in order to meaningfully overcome the market for lemons. Our preliminary analysis suggests the majority of cyber warranties cover … Read More “On Cyber Warranties” »
Good paper on cybersecurity insurance: both the history and the promise for the future. From the conclusion: Policy makers have long held high hopes for cyber insurance as a tool for improving security. Unfortunately, the available evidence so far should give policymakers pause. Cyber insurance appears to be a weak form of governance at present. … Read More “On Cybersecurity Insurance” »
Krebs on Security is reporting a massive data leak by the real estate title insurance company First American Financial Corp. “The title insurance agency collects all kinds of documents from both the buyer and seller, including Social Security numbers, drivers licenses, account statements, and even internal corporate documents if you’re a small business. You give … Read More “First American Financial Corp. Data Records Leak” »
This will complicate things: To complicate matters, having cyber insurance might not cover everyone’s losses. Zurich American Insurance Company refused to pay out a $100 million claim from Mondelez, saying that since the U.S. and other governments labeled the NotPetya attack as an action by the Russian military their claim was excluded under the “hostile … Read More “Cybersecurity Insurance Not Paying for NotPetya Losses” »
I had not heard about this case before. Zurich Insurance has refused to pay Mondelez International’s claim of $100 million in damages from NotPetya. It claims it is an act of war and therefor not covered. Mondelez is suing. Those turning to cyber insurance to manage their exposure presently face significant uncertainties about its promise. … Read More “Cyberinsurance and Acts of War” »
Good article about how difficult it is to insure an organization against Internet attacks, and how expensive the insurance is. Companies like retailers, banks, and healthcare providers began seeking out cyberinsurance in the early 2000s, when states first passed data breach notification laws. But even with 20 years’ worth of experience and claims data in … Read More “Cybersecurity Insurance” »