As air travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend spiked to pre-pandemic levels and AAA estimates over 53 million people will hit the road this holiday, the Cybersecurit

y & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and FBI issued an advisory yesterday, warning critical infrastructure partners that malicious cyber actors tend to strike during holiday weekends.

“Although neither CISA nor the FBI currently have identified any specific threats, recent 2021 trends show malicious cyber actors launching serious and impactful ransomware attacks during holidays and weekends.”

Topics: Cyber Security, Data Breach, Holiday Risk, Risk management, Total Cost of Risk, business continuity plan

Ransomware continues to be a major issue for companies regardless of the size. It may be hard to believe, but the reason for this lies with the victims, because the quickest and most often used resolution to the attack is to pay the ransom. While paying the ransom, may resolve a problem for an organization, it encourages cyber criminals to continue the attacks.

Topics: Cyber Security, Data Breach, Personal Cyber Risk

As a follow up to our previous article on the subject of Cyber Security During a Pandemic, we thought we’d share with you some of the topics used in phishing scams, so that you are better prepared, should you become the target of one.

Topics: Cyber Risk, Cyber Security, Data Breach, Phishing Scam, COVID-19, risk management consultant

This is an actual picture I took in a café of an unattended pile of documents marked “Confidential.” It blew my mind. If only this employee’s C.E.O. or C.O.O. could see this obvious disregard for the material’s confidentiality. Anyone could have grabbed the documents, peaked at the data, or… snapped a photo.

Topics: Cyber Liability, Cyber Risk, Cyber Risk Mitigation, Data Breach, cyber attacks

Most companies today opt to distribute their employees’ W-2 tax forms electronically; either through email or some type of download service. Because these forms contain a good deal of Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”), such as name, address, social security number and salary information – cyber thieves are using several simple, yet, tried-and-true methods to fraudulently obtain them.

Topics: Breach of Security, Cyber Breach, Cyber Insurance, Cyber Liability, Cyber Risk, Cyber Security, Data Breach, Ransomware, Risk management, Risk Management Blog

Organizations today must regard cyber breaches not as a possibility, but as an inevitable fact of life. In this environment, it’s crucial to have a cyber liability insurance policy that adequately covers the potential loss and offers payment or reimbursement for response costs. Understanding what’s covered by the policy well before a breach occurs and building that knowledge into your company’s incident response plan is critical.

Topics: Breach of Security, Cyber Breach, Cyber Insurance, Cyber Liability, Cyber Risk, Cyber Security, Data Breach, Risk Management Blog

2016 was a big year for ransomware. It saw a massive increase in ransomware events and payouts to criminals, which, most experts say, only exacerbates the issue.

A 2015 report by the Herjavec Group (an Information Security company) noted that the total cost of ransomware reached $1 billion in 2016. With new “strains” of ransomware spreading worldwide (such as the Russian “spora”), we should all be on high alert for this business-impacting cyber threat.

Topics: Breach of Security, Cyber Breach, Cyber Insurance, Cyber Liability, Cyber Risk, Cyber Security, Data Breach, Ransomware, Risk Management Blog

Traditionally, a cyber breach occurs and otherwise private information is stolen or made public resulting in costs such as notification expenses, IT forensics, data recovery, public relations/crisis management, legal defense, business interruption, brand/reputation damage and regulatory fines and penalties; just to name a few. However, the breadth of cyber-attacks has proven to be ever expanding.  Now, breaches resulting in physical property damage are being reported more regularly which leads to the immediate question, “am I covered for such an event?

Topics: Cyber Breach, Cyber Risk, Data Breach, Property Risk, Risk Management Blog

Back in May 2016 I posted a blog (Be Prepared – Data Breach Notification Laws are Changing), which covered how data breach notification laws were evolving.  At that time the state of Tennessee amended its law, becoming the first state in the nation to require notification of any data breach, whether the information is encrypted or not.  I also predicted that state laws would most likely become stricter in the not too distant future…

Topics: Breach of Security, California Data Breach Notification Law; Data Brea, Cyber Breach, Cyber Liability, Cyber Risk, Cyber Security, Data Breach, Personally Identifiable Information, PII, Protection Bill AB2828, Risk management, Risk Management Blog

As the world focuses on the outcome of the contentious Presidential race between Trump and Clinton, the US government is on high alert for potential Election Day cyber attacks.  The current global cyber climate, this summer’s Russian hack of the Democratic National Committee, and a recent string of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have intelligence officials highly concerned that cyber event(s) could seriously infringe on today’s election process.

Topics: Breach of Security, Cyber Breach, Cyber Insurance, Cyber Risk, Cyber Security, Data Breach, Election Day Cyber Alert, Election Day Cyber Attack, High Alert Election Day Cyber Attack, Risk Management Blog