Cyber Losses and Insurance

The frequency and variation of cyber-attacks has risen to unprecedented levels with a third of UK businesses reporting breaches or attacks at least once a week.

Cyber incidents include ransomware, malware, third party and supply chain attacks, hacking and phishing incidents as well as IT failures and losses arising as a result of human error.

Cyber risk insurance policies are rapidly evolving to respond to (or exclude) newly emerging threats however, the standardisation of such policy wordings has not followed at the same pace.  The result is that disagreements regarding the scope and meaning of cover are common and there has been an increase in claim denials as insurers adopt arbitrary and, as yet, untested interpretations of policy terms.

Cyber risks can result in a number of different losses such as:

• Property damage losses – repair, notification, third party claims and fines;
• Business interruption losses;
• Data breach losses; and
• Crime loss – theft, ransom, misappropriation of monies.

Edwin Coe’s experienced team of commercial and insurance lawyers act predominantly for policyholders providing comprehensive legal support, advice and representation in relation to losses and complex policy coverage issues arising from damage to or the loss of information from IT systems and networks as a result of data theft, network outages, malware, fraud and human error.

We understand that most clients would prefer to resolve a dispute without resorting to litigation and our team has particular expertise in bringing about early resolution of matters with a focus on achieving cost effective and commercial outcomes for our clients utilising all forms of alternative dispute resolution.