Law firms and cyber insurance: Under-educated and overexposed
Law professionals can gain a deeper understanding of the digital threats they face, and why (and how) they can be properly insured.
By Shawn Moynihan, Rhys Dipshan and Lizzy McLellan | July 23, 2018 at 12:30 AM| Source: PropertyCasulaty360.com
Insurance professional Ralph Pasquariello offers a cautionary tale about one law firm that recently paid the price for cheapening out on its cyber liability insurance.
“I got called in to insure a firm here in Atlanta,” he recalls. “When I met with them over the last couple of years, they resisted my help and assessment of their coverages. Then, six months ago, they were involved with a business e-mail compromise that cost them $127,000.
“The cyber policy I would have sold them would have cost somewhere around $6,000,” says Pasquariello, cyber/data/network liability specialist and commercial liability consultant for Atlanta-based Snellings Walters Insurance. “Do the math. The loss they incurred was much more than $127,000, as they needed to pay for forensics and restoration costs.”
While that may sound like a good-sized loss, in the larger scheme of cyber losses, it’s still on the low end — and that firm’s blind spot for a major cyber-related loss is not uncommon….