Cyber Insurance Fuels Ransomware Payment Surge

Companies relying on their cyber insurance policies to pay off ransomware criminals are being blamed for a recent uptick in ransomware attacks.

Ransomware victims are increasingly falling back on their cyber insurance
providers to pay the ransom when they’re hit with an extortion cyberattack.

But security researchers warn that this approach can quickly become problematic.

In the first half of 2020, ransomware attacks accounted for 41 percent of the
total number of filed cyber insurance claims, according to a Cyber Claims
Insurance Report released last year by Coalition.

And indeed, in real-world attacks over the past two years, many companies
afflicted by ransomware acknowledged that they had utilized cyber insurance
to deal with either the ransom itself or the ensuing cost of remediation.