In the following guest post, Jack Keilty, Head of Management Liability, New Dawn Risk, examines the growing problem of social engineering fraud, and considers the problems losses from this type of fraud can present from an insurance standpoint. I would like to thank Jack for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Jack’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: The Social Engineering Fraud-Shaped Hole in Insurance Cover
The business pages have been full in recent months with tales of cyber extortion and ransomware. In an effort to try to explain these developments, some commentators have suggested that the availability of ransomware coverage under cyber insurance is a cause of the problem. In the following guest post, Paul Ferrillo takes on the question of the role of cyber insurance availability in the proliferation of ransomware incidents. Paul is a partner in the securities litigation group at the Seyfarth Shaw law firm. I would like to thank Paul for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Paul’s article.
Many of you probably saw 
One of the more challenging issues businesses must confront as wrongdoers have turned Internet tools into criminal devices has been the rising threat of payment instruction fraud, or, as it is sometimes called, social engineering fraud. Along with these crimes have come vexing questions of insurance coverage for the ensuing losses. Courts have struggled to determine whether or not payment instruction fraud losses are covered under Crime policies. A recent case in the Southern District of New York raises the question whether a payment instruction fraud loss is covered not under a Crime policy but rather under insurance policy containing both E&O and Cyber coverages.