Consider the following two scenarios resulting in identical losses, but potentially two entirely different insurance coverage outcomes. In the first instance, a thief hacks, or gains unauthorized entry, into an insured’s...more
Corporate policyholders often assume their computer fraud crime insurance will cover so-called social engineering thefts. Reasonably so. Fraudsters commit these crimes by using computers to trick innocent employees into...more
The Fifth Circuit has affirmed a district court ruling that a crime policy’s Computer Transfer Fraud coverage did not apply to losses incurred in connection with an email phishing scam. See Mississippi Silicon Holdings LLC v....more
A Mississippi federal district court became the latest to rule that Computer Fraud Transfer and Funds Transfer Fraud coverages were not applicable to losses resulting from an email phishing scam. In Miss. Silicon Holdings,...more
The Situation: Businesses are increasingly at risk of social engineering crimes, and often their commercial insurance policies do not provide the full protection that they expected. The Result: Three recent decisions...more
Last week, the Vermont Supreme Court in Rainforest Chocolate, LLC v. Sentinel Insurance Company, 2018 VT LEXIS 240 (Vt. Dec. 28, 2018), held that the “False Pretense” exclusion in a business-owner policy did not exclude loss...more
The Sixth Circuit recently entered a ruling in American Tooling Center, Inc. v. Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. of America, 2018 WL 3404708 (6th Cir. July 13, 2018), soundly rejecting a cyber carrier’s extremely narrow...more
Fraudsters deploy different computer-related techniques but toward the same end – “gaming the system” for their own financial gain. Some victims turn to insurance for recovery. Four recent federal appellate decisions reveal...more
As the number and sophistication of social engineering attacks increases, victims are examining their insurance policies to see if they are covered. In The Brick Warehouse LP v. Chubb Insurance Company of Canada, 2017 ABQB...more
In this month's edition of our Privacy & Cybersecurity Update, we examine California's new sweeping privacy law, two U.S. agencies' report on "botnet" threats and the European Parliament's call to suspend the Privacy Shield....more
“Phishing” is a scheme in which criminals use spoofed e-mails, copycat websites, or other deceptive communications to trick unwitting companies or individuals into sharing valuable personal information or into wiring money to...more
Scams from business compromise emails (BECs) have been labeled by the FBI as a “$5 billion” problem. Sometimes known as “CEO Fraud,” BECs are where an email, purportedly coming from a high-ranking company official or vendor,...more
Remember the “good” ol’ days when the run-of-the-mill theft involved someone physically taking something tangible? That is so 20th century. Now, thieves and fraudsters are able to use computers and the internet to carry out...more
On April 16, 2018, Beazley Group issued a report highlighting increased attacks on Microsoft’s cloud-based business products and services. The report stated that successful attacks typically are achieved by tricking employees...more
In this month's edition of our Privacy & Cybersecurity Update, we discuss all 50 states now having data breach notification laws, state attorneys general and their opposition to a federal data breach notification law, the FBI...more
The FBI continues to warn that losses are on the rise from business email compromise (BEC) or “social engineering” schemes, which the Bureau describes as: Carried out by transnational criminal organizations that employ...more
A few weeks back, the Insurance Recovery report posted a blog about the difficulty obtaining insurance coverage for “fake president” fraud, which is also known as business e-mail compromise, or social engineering fraud. Two...more
The “business compromise email” is what the FBI calls the “$5 billion scam,” but apparently an insurance company did not agree with an insured company that they had been the victim of a crime....more
Last month, the Northern District of Georgia issued a strongly pro-insurer decision holding that a policy insuring computer fraud did not provide coverage for $11.4 million in fraudulent debit card redemptions made over the...more
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit narrowed the conduct covered under an insurance policy’s computer fraud provision by vacating the judgment in favor of the insured, Apache Corp., and rendering...more