what to do when you get a ransomware email

(CNN Business)A ransomware attack on a single software vendor may have impacted as many as 1,500 businesses around the world, in the latest example of cyber criminals crippling computer systems and enervating millions of dollars to restore them.

The listing of high-profile ransomware attacks grows longer and more alarming by the week, impacting everything from gas pipelines and meat supplies to ferries. Those companies and agencies that get hitting must scramble to protect their systems and a tough decision on whether to pay hackers to remove the disruption.

In the face of that situation, affected companies may rush to reach out to their IT teams, law, crisis PR, lawyers and constabulary enforcement. Only, frequently, one of the showtime calls is to their insurance provider.

Companies oft purchase specific cyber insurance plans to assist protect their systems and cover any losses from a cyberattack. And ransomware, which allows hackers to accept over reckoner systems (or even physical infrastructure) and extract fees running into the millions of dollars to unblock them, has just additional the demand for that insurance.

But this lifeline may also exist getting harder to access for companies considering of ascension costs, more stringent requirements from insurers and increased scrutiny from the regime when foreign hackers are involved.

Growing demand

AIG, i of the earth's largest insurers, says it saw a 150% increase in bribe and extortion claims between 2018 and 2020. Ransom demands at present account for one in every 5 cyber insurance claims, the company added.

"Data-intensive companies were the first ... but over the last number of years all types of industries have started purchasing cyber insurance," Tracie Grella, AIG's global head of cyber insurance, told CNN Business. "I call up at this signal information technology'southward certainly clear that all industries are impacted, all have to manage cyber chance."

Depending on the size of the company and what needs to be covered — from security teams and lawyers to potential lawsuits and reimbursement for business losses or fifty-fifty ransom payments — plans can cost anywhere from "a couple hundred dollars ... up to multimillion-dollar programs," Grella said, adding that AIG'southward clients make bribe payments roughly l% of the fourth dimension.

The FBI and cyber security experts recommend against paying ransoms, saying the payments encourage cyber criminals to step up their targeting of businesses and infrastructure.

The average toll of a cyber insurance policy in 2019 was $1,500 a twelvemonth for $ane million in coverage with a $10,000 deductible, according to Mark Friedlander of the New York-based Insurance Information Constitute.

It's getting harder and more expensive

As the frequency and range of targets for ransomware attacks goes up, that cost is increasing. According to an Apr report from Fitch Ratings, total premiums for cyber insurance coverage clocked in at $2.7 billion in 2020, a 22% increase over the previous year, and is expected to go up further in 2021.

Companies that want cyber insurance are also now discipline to much more severe scrutiny of their existing cyber security measures before they tin can get canonical for a programme.

AIG gives prospective clients a list of 25 questions specific to their protections confronting ransomware, which include details on how oft they examination employees against electronic mail phishing attacks and how long they take to deploy disquisitional security patches (ranging from "within 24 hours" to "more than 7 days").

"Correct at present ransomware is more than prevalent, so we do have a deeper swoop, more than specific underwriting strategy around ransomware ," Grella said. "If certain controls are not met, nosotros will likely still provide coverage ... but information technology will be reduced encompass."

Some cyber security experts also warn against treating insurance as a catch-all solution, particularly when demand is spiking.

"In some cases organizations are a little too ready to transfer this kind of risk through insurance. They call back that that'due south a real healthy backstop and they tin can avoid doing some of the other, more painful investments in security," said Mike Hamilton, the chief data security officeholder at cyber security firm Critical Insight.

And with the US regime deciding this week that it will use similar protocols to deal with ransomware attacks every bit it does with terrorism, specially those linked to nation-states, Hamilton says insurance providers have a potential avenue to avert paying out cyber insurance claims. Terrorism insurance is often a divide plan offered to businesses, and rarely covers events that are considered acts of war.

"If insurance companies can call anything a nation-state act or an act of terrorism, they don't take to make good on their policies, and that's going to be a trouble," he added.

Who else to contact

With or without a cyber insurance policy, nearly companies' first line of defense confronting cyberattacks remains their internal Information technology department. It's non uncommon for firms to have contracts with external cyber security firms that can deploy incident response teams and cyber ransom negotiators.

Simply experts say getting law enforcement and regime agencies involved early on is as well important. The FBI is the main agency in charge of investigating cyber attacks, and provides resources such as the Internet Criminal offence Complaint Center and National Cyber Investigative Joint Job Force where companies tin can flag incidents.

Other agencies handling cyberattacks include the Department of Homeland Security's National cyber security and Communications Integration Centre and the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team. Nearly of those agencies have online portals to report incidents, and many also provide phone numbers.

"The first matter a company should practice is phone call the federal authorities," said Andrew Rubin, founder and CEO of cyber security firm Illumio.

"When companies operate in a silo, things go out of hand," he added. "Information sharing betwixt the private and public sectors is critical."

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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/05/tech/ransomware-cyber-insurance-what-to-do/index.html

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