Lifting the Fog of War Around Cyber Coverage
The 2017 NotPetya attack that crippled computer systems and supply chain operations created a watershed moment for the insurance industry, when certain insurers cited the sparsely used “act of war” exclusion to refuse coverage for losses suffered from that event. Currently, millions of dollars of claims are awaiting the outcome of that dispute.
One highly publicized example is Mondelez (a manufacturer of snack brands including Cadbury, Oreo, Ritz, Triscutis, Toblerone, and Tang). Mondelez filed an insurance claim for damages with Zurich American Insurance, on the grounds that its all-risk property insurance policy covered both the direct physical and the indirect expenses incurred during the period of the computer failures. The insurer, however, states the policy language does not cover an act of war or warlike action (and other qualifiers), which it claims fits the bill for NotPetya.
2021 is the Time to Get Clarity on Your Policy Language
While there is hope that the Zurich v. Mondelez dispute might be resolved in 2021, the unsettled nature of it won’t provide any comfort to risk and security professionals that are scrambling to understand how policies might respond if their organization is impacted by the SolarWinds attack. For example:
- Could insurers similarly use the act of war exclusion, based on the suspected identity and motive of the attackers?
- Could other exclusions or policy caveats, such as those precluding coverage for wide-scale events, be used similarly?
- Are SolarWinds specific exclusions finding their way into policies that are being renewed right now?
At Axio, our mission is to solve cyber risk and bring clarity to this uncertainty. For a limited time, through January 31st, 2021, we are offering free use of our platform for a rapid analysis of an insurance policy that could be important to your recovery plans:
- Suggested policy types: Cyber, Crime, Property
- Your policy will be scanned using our AI engine to identify any problematic wording, including the act of war exclusion
- When the scan is complete, we’ll email you a list of paragraphs that have been flagged and the page the paragraph appears on
- You will receive some interpretation guidance and recommendations for next steps
- If you have any questions or want a deeper analysis on potential exposures and coverage, feel free to email us to book a demo to see the Axio360 AI and ML engine in action.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Axio authored by Axio. Read the original post at: https://axio.com/insights/lifting-the-fog-of-war-around-cyber-coverage/
