Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog

In the August 2019 publication of Contract Management, Hunton insurance recovery lawyers Walter Andrews, Lorelie Masters, Michael Levine, and Latosha Ellis discuss how a robust insurance program can help government prime contractors mitigate potential financial risks associated with downstream data breaches or releases. In the article, the authors explain government prime contractors’ cybersecurity obligations under DFARS and other federal regulations. A copy of the article is here.

In a recently filed brief in the Ninth Circuit, Cottage Health argued in support of the federal district court’s stay of Columbia Casualty’s lawsuit against Cottage Health in favor of Cottage Health’s parallel state court lawsuit against Columbia Casualty.

Reports of recent cyberattacks continue the discussion we started with yesterday’s blog post about common hurdles to coverage.  The hurdle for today’s discussion?  Ransomware.

Ransomware attacks are on the rise.  Security services company SonicWall reported that ransomware attacks increased by a factor of 167, from 3.8 million in 2015 to 638 million in 2016.  Similarly, insurer Beazley reported that ransomware claims quadrupled in 2016, and are expected to double again in 2017.

Despite these trends, many standard cyber forms do not cover ransoms to restore system access or to ...